Changing History
by Kallanit
Summary: The second Voldemort Blood War is over and the side of Light has won, however, unfortunately, the British Wizarding World has been decimated. Rebuilding seems impossible so perhaps other options must be found. Contains elements of time-turner and Hogwarts-reads-the-books type fics. Eventual HG/SS.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Not mine, don't own it—I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.

**Author's Notes:**

» Hermione changes her name during the story. However, to make it easier to understand, I'll continue to refer to Hermione by the name we all know. The only times her new name will be used is when she introduces herself to new people, or when someone is speaking to her and calls her by name.

» This story is unbetaed, so I apologise for any typos or other errors that may crop up.

» This isn't a particularly dramatic story. I wrote this mainly because whenever I got stuck on some of my other stories, it helped me to write something else for a while to clear my head. However, it also gave me a chance to vent a bit at the negligence of the adults in _Harry Potter_ and the danger the children were constantly in. I realise that JKR wrote the books for young adults and that the main protagonists therefore had to be approximately the same age as her target audience, but it still appalled me that so much was left in the hands of children, while the majority of the adults in the wizarding world sat back and did nothing.

.o.O.o.

**CHAPTER 1**

It was the first of September 1998 and Hermione Granger sat alone in the library of twelve Grimmauld Place, silently toasting the day that school should have started. Unfortunately, Hogwarts Castle, damaged in the Final Battle of the second Voldemort Blood War, had not yet been rebuilt. The war had ended some four months earlier but life for the young Muggleborn witch was still as grim and dire as ever.

First, despite her best efforts to keep them safe, Hermione had lost her parents during the war. Then her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron and Ginny Weasley had all died in the Final Battle, along with their father, Arthur, and brothers, Charlie and Percy. The remaining Weasleys, all overcome with grief, had left Britain behind. Bill and his wife, Fleur, moved to her homeland of France, taking the devastated matriarch of the family, Molly, with them. Diagon Alley, St Mungo's Hospital, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were all destroyed and Fred and George Weasley had decided against rebuilding their shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, in Diagon Alley. Instead, the twins were planning to reopen in La Place des Sorciers, the Parisian equivalent of Diagon Alley. So many people had either died in the war or had since left Britain, that the all too few remnants of the wizarding community were struggling to rebuild.

Although not it did not belong to her, Hermione had moved into the Black home in Grimmauld Place. Harry had inherited the house from his godfather, Sirius Black, but a Death Eater named Yaxley had gained entry during the war and had trashed it. Nevertheless, Hermione had made desultory efforts to clean it up as best she could and had moved in. The battle-worn witch still slept at night with her wand clutched tightly in her hand, as she did not have access to the house's wards. Unable to recast and strengthen the wards of the house, Hermione no longer felt entirely safe there since Yaxley had been able to enter the house, despite having added very strong wards of her own—she simply had nowhere else to go.

Too lethargic to go to bed, she continued drinking, seeking oblivion, until finally she passed out on the sofa.

As the light began to seep in through the window, a tapping sound came from the glass pane. Hermione stirred and, as the tapping continued, blearily opened her eyes. Wearily, she dragged herself off the couch and stumbled over to the window and opened it for the impatient owl, which flew in and perched on a table. Taking the letter from the owl, she apologised, "I don't have any owl treats, I'm sorry." The owl hooted and flew off, as Hermione sat down to read the letter.

.

_Dear Miss Granger_

_I hope that you will forgive me for the short notice but I would appreciate it if you could please come to Hogwarts at your earliest convenience. It is a matter of great importance. Please bring your belongings and your cat with you, as you might not be returning to Grimmauld Place. I will explain further when you arrive._

_Yours_

_Minerva McGonagall_

.

"Bring my belongings with me? That's strange, isn't it Crooks?" Hermione asked her pet cat, who ignored the question and carried on snoozing. The young lonely witch talked to him all the time, simply to hear herself speak. Hermione had very little interaction with others these days and sometimes the silence was deafening. She sat contemplating the letter for a few minutes, willing it to explain the strange message from Professor McGonagall. Then she groaned in defeat and went in search of a remedy for her hangover.

Twenty minutes later, Hermione was showered, dressed and packed. It had not taken her long to get organised as, in truth, her belongings were always in a state of readiness within the magically expanded, beaded bag she had used while on the run during the last year of the war. In theory, she knew she could probably relax enough to unpack but, in practice, it was always packed so she could leave at a moment's notice if need be. Even though the war was over, to be always prepared for the worst was still ingrained within her; she did not yet feel settled enough to relax that habit.

Crookshanks cooperated for once and allowed Hermione to slip him into his pet carrier, as though he somehow knew it was important. Closing the front door behind her, she apparated from the step of twelve Grimmauld Place to the gates of Hogwarts. The castle was still in a state of extreme disrepair but the wards had been reinstalled and she could no longer apparate directly to the castle doors. The gates swung open at her approach and she headed up towards the castle, trying desperately to keep her mind blank. Everywhere she looked there were memories of Harry, Ron, Ginny and so many others who had been lost, and it was painful to recall their loss. Hermione found it hard to understand how she survived the war and, sometimes, when her memories overwhelmed her, she wished that she too had died.

Professor McGonagall was waiting for her at the entrance door. "Thank you for coming, Miss Granger," she said.

"You're welcome, Professor," she replied. "Is there a problem? Only your note sounded quite… urgent."

"And baffling too, I would imagine," the older woman replied ruefully and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"We need to go to the Head's office," Professor McGonagall continued. "It's still relatively intact and it's the best place for this particular conversation."

Upon arriving at the Head's office, Hermione saw that the gargoyle, which normally guarded the door, had still not been restored to its rightful place after being knocked off its perch during the Final Battle and it was still on the floor awaiting repair. Patting its head as she passed, she followed her former Head of House up the spiral staircase and into the office.

"Please, sit down, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said, indicating a sofa in front of the fire.

Hermione could sense the nervousness emanating from the other woman and idly wondered at its cause. Then she mentally shrugged. Hermione had been extremely detached since the end of the war, having lost all enthusiasm for life and merely surviving from day-to-day. Her now rusty curiosity stirred for a moment and then fell silent again in the face of Hermione's ongoing apathy. The younger witch sat down and waited patiently for Professor McGonagall to speak.

"What I am about to tell you, Miss Granger, is something not widely known. In fact, only the Headmaster or Headmistress, the Deputy Head and the Heads of House are privy to this information."

"And yet you're telling me?"

Professor McGonagall grimaced slightly before continuing. "Miss Granger, Hogwarts is sentient. There is a spiritual representation of Hogwarts, which the Founders built into the fabric of the castle. Normally she only appears to those specific members of staff but Lady Hogwarts has asked to meet you."

Hermione's interest stirred again and alongside it there was even a sliver of hope. "Lady Hogwarts wants to meet me? But why?"

"I'll let her explain that to you herself."

With that, a silvery figure appeared in the office. To Hermione's amazement, the silvery lady looked like a corporeal Patronus, as though this was the Patronus of the very castle itself. Hermione stood and curtsied. "My Lady Hogwarts," she said.

"Miss Granger. Thank you for coming," the spirit answered in a silvery voice. "I have a task for you, if you will. It is of the gravest importance."

"May I ask, why you ask this of me? Why am I best suited for your task?"

Lady Hogwarts smiled. "Miss Granger, I know the hearts and minds of every person who has resided within these walls. I am unable to share what I have learned, otherwise perhaps Tom Riddle could have been stopped before he became Lord Voldemort. The Founders made it thus to ensure that my knowledge cannot be used by unscruplous persons. However, they also foresaw a time when I would be damaged beyond repair and the wizarding world would similiarly be in tatters. In this instance I am permitted to speak, in order to save our world. I know you, Miss Granger. I know that you are one of the brightest souls ever to have entered my walls. Your intelligence is remarkable and your heart is pure. There is no other to whom I would entrust this task. Professor McGonagall here agrees with me, as does the portrait of Headmaster Black."

Hermione looked around and saw them all nodding in agreement. She gave each of them a small smile and then turned back to the spirit of the castle. "What is it you wish of me, my Lady?" she inquired.

"I wish to send you back in time, to the start of the final school year of former Headmaster Snape. Think hard on this, Miss Granger, because you will not be able to return to this time. However, you will have the knowledge to bring the war to an early end. You could prevent the destruction of our world."

Hermione thought furiously for a moment. Her parents, Sirius Black, Remus and Tonks Lupin, Professor Snape, Ron, Ginny, Arthur, Percy, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Colin Creevey, Cedric Diggory, Lavender Brown… the list seemed endless. _Harry!_ She could save him _and_ his parents. She could save them all. She nodded decisively. "I'll do it," she said firmly.

"Are you sure you wish to do this, Miss Granger?" Hermione looked at her former Head of House and saw tears glistening in her eyes.

"Yes, Professor," she replied sombrely. "Quite sure. What do I have left to stay here for?"

Professor McGonagall nodded sadly. "It's been a pleasure knowing you, Miss Granger," she said.

"You'll see me again—or before!" Hermione said. "Oh! Will I be able to…?"

"Tell people who you are?" interrupted Lady Hogwarts. "Indeed you will."

A coughing sound came from the direction of Albus Dumbledore's portrait. "It is dangerous to meddle with time. The timeline must remain intact. You cannot change things and you must not tell people who are you, Miss Granger."

"Then what's the point of me going back in time?" Hermione cried.

"Silence!" Lady Hogwarts proclaimed vehemently. The portrait of Albus Dumbledore looked taken aback at Lady Hogwarts' outburst and the spiritual representation of the castle continued. "This is not your decision, Albus Dumbledore. The entire purpose of Miss Granger going back in time is to make changes and you cannot prevent it. This is foreordained." By the end of her proclamation, Professor Dumbledore was shrinking back in his portrait, as cowed as it is possible for an animated painting to be.

Hermione turned back to Professor McGonagall. "I guess I will be able to tell you who I am. I'm not sure you'll believe me, though."

"Don't worry, child. That will be taken care of," Lady Hogwarts reassured her.

Professor McGonagall drew Hermione into a hug. "Good luck, Miss Granger, and take care," she whispered and left the room, leaving Hermione alone with Lady Hogwarts.

"So how do we do this?" Hermione asked.

"Go to the Room of Requirement. Think of me as your requirement and the room will open to show me there."

"Wasn't the room destroyed during the Final Battle? Crabbe let Fiendfyre loose in the Room of Hidden Things but he didn't know how to extinguish it."

"Only that particular manifestation of the Room of Requirement was destroyed. The other aspects of the room are still intact. I made sure of that."

Lady Hogwarts then faded out of view and Hermione took that as her cue to head up to the seventh floor, her beaded bag and pet carrier in hand. Arriving at the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy, Hermione paced three times along the opposite stretch of wall, thinking, _'Lady Hogwarts, Lady Hogwarts, Lady Hogwarts.'_

A door opened and Hermione entered the room. There she found that the room had reproduced the Head's office and, once again, the young witch was invited to sit on the sofa by the fire. Putting down the carrier with Crookshanks asleep inside, Hermione raised a brow quizzically at Lady Hogwarts. "There are things that I can only show you here in this room and, besides, the portraits cannot enter the Room of Requirement."

Hermione shared a grin with Lady Hogwarts and but then suddenly sobered again. "You know, in a way Professor Dumbledore was right," she said thoughtfully.

"In what way, child?"

"I need to protect my younger self. Should anyone want to stop me changing the past, all they would need to do is kill the young me and then I'll never come to Hogwarts, never return to fix things. It's one thing telling the necessary people what they need to know to change the future but it's another to tell them precisely who I am. I'll need another identity in the past but is there some kind of ritual I can do to make it my real name from now on? The Marauders' Map will show my true name otherwise."

"Do not worry about that map; I control what can be seen on it. However, as there are other methods of ascertaining your true name, you are correct that we need to protect your younger self," Lady Hogwarts explained. "There is some history you need to know and then we shall indeed perform such a ritual before you go back in time. Let us begin with your family history."

With that, a figure appeared. Hermione looked up in astonishment and then her face lit up with joy. "Granny Lilias!" she cried, running over to the woman and throwing her arms around her. "How is this possible?"

"Oh, Hermione," the woman said, hugging her granddaughter. "I'm so proud of you, my dear."

"You're proud of me? But how do you know about me?" Hermione asked, confused.

"I've been watching over you ever since I left you."

"Mummy and Daddy? Are they watching too?"

"Yes, they are and they're as proud of you as I am. They love you very much, Hermione, and they want you to stop blaming yourself for their deaths. It wasn't your fault. It was no one's fault but Voldemort's and his Death Eaters."

"But I didn't keep them safe!" she wailed, tears running silently down her face.

"You tried your best, sweetheart. There was nothing anyone could have done to save them. Your Professor Snape tried to save them, you know, but even he couldn't manage it, so stop feeling guilty."

"I'll try," she whispered.

"Good girl. Now come and sit down. I have a lot to tell you and not much time." She led Hermione back to the sofa and sat down beside her granddaughter, holding her hands tightly.

"First of all, I should tell you that I'm a Squib. When your mother also had no magic, I decided not to tell Helen about the wizarding world. Why tell her of what she couldn't have? I know myself how painful that is. Like me, Helen was better off in the Muggle world. I didn't see you very often when you were young because we lived so far apart and then I had already passed on a couple of years before you got your Hogwarts letter, so I simply didn't realise you had magic. I would have told you all about this world if I had known.

"I come from an old Pureblood family, Hermione. We're descended from the Peverells—I know you know that name. The youngest brother, Ignotus, made the invisibility cloak and that descended through his family line to the Potters. The middle brother, Cadmus, made the Resurrection Stone, which descended through his family line to the Gaunts, who later married into the Slytherin line. And, finally, there was the oldest brother, Antioch, who made the Elder Wand. That became a sought-after prize and so did not descend through the family line. However, as his descendant, the wand will recognise you as its true Master, even if it's not won by overcoming its previous owner. That's why it responded to you when you took it from Harry's body after the Final Battle. I know that initially you only took it to stop anyone unscrupulous from using it but you kept it in the end, didn't you?"

Hermione nodded. Her first wand had been lost earlier in the war and after that she had used Bellatrix Lestrange's wand, which she had taken from the Dark witch when escaping from her clutches. Bellatrix's wand resisted Hermione and the younger witch hated the feeling of Darkness that emanated from it. Garrick Ollivander had died in captivity in Malfoy Manor and there was no other wandmaker in Britain, so when Hermione found the Elder Wand responding positively to her after the Final Battle, she had kept it.

"Our family name is Pevensie and we are of Antoich's line." Lilias laughed as Hermione perked up in recognition of that name. "I was the oldest child and had a brother, Alfred, and a sister, Primula, both of whom were magical. They and their families were killed by Voldemort's Death Eaters before you were born. Your parents and I were saved by the fact that we lived in the Muggle world. My parents had sent me to Muggle school as soon as they realised I had no magic. They felt that it would be better for me to be an equal in that world than to be regarded as inferior in the magical world. As I grew older, I spent more and more time with my Muggle friends, until I finally moved to the Muggle world permanently when I finished school. My Muggle friends all thought I was an only child whose parents had died, and that I lived with a disinterested guardian, so they never expected to meet my family. By the time Voldemort decided to target the House of Pevensie, I had long been forgotten by the wizarding world.

"When your mother was young, I used to tell her stories of a girl and her siblings living in a world of magic, and going off to a school of enchantment, where they learned of magical things and met mysterious creatures and people who could become animals. The brother and sister loved that world but the girl had made friends in the mundane world. She married one who was not magical and had children who were not magical either and so she happily stayed in the mundane world with her new family. One day I told stories not only to your mother but also to her best friend, who turned out to be the goddaughter of the author, CS Lewis¹. He took my stories and built them into something else completely. He asked me for permission before publishing them and as they were so different from mine and from the reality of the wizarding world, I agreed. He added an older brother, and changed Alfred's name to Edmund and Primula's name to that of his goddaughter, Lucy. He was going to call the other daughter Lily as a tribute to me since I had given him the original inspiration for Narnia but, despite how far removed his stories were from the wizarding world, I was concerned about the Statute of Secrecy and asked him not to use my name. So he called the other daughter Susan; it means Lily but it's not my name."

"In the final book, Susan is depicted as having become very shallow and having repudiated Narnia…"

"He could never understand in my stories why the girl would leave such a wondrous life and he wanted to give a moral lesson, so he depicted her as rejecting Narnia in favour of superficial pursuits and thus not being worthy of being taken to the Narnian afterlife."

"People who can turn into animals—is that where he got the idea of talking animals?"

"I believe so. Hermione, when you go back in time, you can keep your first name if you wish but you should take on the Pevensie surname. There is no one else to claim the name."

"I'll gladly take on your family's name, Granny Lilias. I think, though, that I should also change my first name. It's not a common name, even in a wizarding world full of uncommon names, and I don't want there to be anything that will lead to my younger self. If any of Voldemort's followers should ever have access to the records of Muggleborns, they could easily connect Hermione Granger to Hermione Pevensie. So I need another first name. I was thinking of Hermia because it sounds enough like Hermione that I would answer to it but it's still too close to Hermione for comfort."

"My best friend in the Muggle world was called Marianna. We had been friends since my very first day in Muggle school. Your mother adored her but when she was little, she couldn't say the name properly and ended up calling her Maia instead. When you were a baby, Helen called you Maia as well. She always said the sound of it could easily be taken for a short form of Hermione, just like it was used as a short form for Marianna. Helen stopped calling you that when Marianna passed away. You were about a year old at the time. Do you like that name?" suggested Lilias.

"Mum used to call me that? Then I'd love to be called Maia². And there's a star called Maia, based on Greek and Roman mythology, so that will suit wizarding naming habits. For some reason, names from mythology, names of stars and constellations, and names of flowers seem to be prevalent. In fact," she mused, "the Maia in mythology was the mother of Hermes. It's perfect. I'll be Maia Pevensie, please," she said, turning to Lady Hogwarts. "Is there a ritual that can also change my date of birth? It shouldn't be the nineteenth of September any longer, not if I want to separate myself from young Hermione, and it certainly can't be 1979."

"What date would you like? Remember that you are almost nineteen years old and if we count in the extra hours you gained using the time-turner during your third year, you actually added several months to your age, so you need to take that into account."

Hermione blushed. "I'm not certain of exactly how old I am—I used the time turner more than I should have and I kind of lost track of the hours," she admitted sheepishly, "but I think I'll be twenty some time in June. It has to be a date I'll remember, though. The month of May was named after Maia, so how about May Day? Even if it's not exact, it's close enough to when I estimate that my birthday should now be and the date will be memorable. Would that work, my Lady?"

"Yes, that should be fine, my dear."

"Well, if I'm technically nineteen already and I'm going back to September 1977, then my new birthday should be the first of May 1958."

"Very well. You shall be Maia Pevensie, age nineteen, born on the first of May 1958. I am sending you back to the morning of Wednesday, the thirtieth of August 1977, the day before the school year begins," said Lady Hogwarts. "The House of Pevensie was slaughtered earlier that year, on New Year's Day. The Ministry has put into effect a new law ruling that vaults which lie unclaimed for a year and a day can be confiscated by the Ministry. That is what happened to the Pevensie vault in your timeline. As the only adult, living Pevensie with magic in 1977, you should therefore claim the vault at the earliest opportunity."

"I don't have my NEWTs yet, so will I be attending school? Although it would be good to get to know the Marauders and others of their age, I'll need freedom of movement as well. A transfer student would be noticeable enough, without my disappearing all the time on missions."

"No, child. With all that you've experienced, I doubt you would be able to fit in at school with a class of seventeen year old students. An apprenticeship would be better suited to you. That will keep you here in the castle where it's safe but you'll be able to come and go as you please, without anyone taking note. It will also cause less remark, as it's not unknown for the Masters of Hogwarts to train apprentices."

"I'd like that, my Lady. I'd like it very much," Hermione smiled. "Perhaps in Charms. Arithmancy was my favourite subject from third year onwards but prior to that it was Charms. While I enjoy the intellectual challenge of Arithmancy, over the years I've come to appreciate the practical value of Charms more; it's probably the branch of magic I use most."

"I would have thought you would want to study Transfiguration under Professor McGonagall," Lady Hogwarts remarked, amused.

"I thought of it, but I'd prefer Charms. I've been fighting a war since I first entered the wizarding world in 1991 and I'm about to start fighting it all over again. Not only is Charms more useful to me in that context—many offensive, defensive and warding spells are based in Charms—but I'd enjoy it more. It's time I did something for myself."

"That's a very sensible decision, sweetheart," approved her grandmother. "Practical and fun. You need to have enjoyment in what you do and, yes, you need to think about yourself as much as you do others."

"I concur," agreed Lady Hogwarts. "Now, as you will not have a history at Hogwarts in 1977, it will not be known that you were sorted into Gryffindor. I know that the Sorting Hat strongly considered putting you in Ravenclaw but you convinced it to put you in Gryffindor. In the past, there had been occasions when it was necessary to appoint a Head of House who had not, in fact, attended Hogwarts, due to the fact that there were no members of staff at that time who had been sorted into that particular House. Therefore, it has become tradition to sort any apprentices or professors who did not attend Hogwarts in their schooldays, to know which House they should belong to, so that there would always be four Heads of House. When you will be sorted, I suggest you ask the Hat to put in you in Ravenclaw this time. It will be better for you if you are not connected to the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. You will be able to operate more discreetly as a Ravenclaw than as a Gryffindor."

"That would probably be wisest. I need a background story, too, and it should be as straightforward as possible. How about I say that, I was born to older parents and as a child I had a serious accident falling from my broom, hence my dislike of flying. Between my parents having me later in life and the scare they received from my accident, they tended to coddle me and didn't want to send me off to school, so I was tutored privately instead of attending Hogwarts. They have now passed away, so I'm free to pursue my dream of obtaining a Mastery. What should I say if I'm asked about my family? I'm a Pevensie through my maternal line, hence my taking on the name now that the rest of the family is no more, but what about my father?"

"Say that your paternal line is also descended from Squibs but in that case, unlike with your grandmother, your Squib ancestor was disowned and so you cannot claim rights to the family name or line," Lady Hogwarts instructed her.

"Is that actually true?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Indeed it is. Your paternal great-great-grandfather was a Dagworth-Granger. Upon being disowned and entering the Muggle world, he decided to simplify his name and dropped the Dagworth, leaving only the Granger."

"I'll do that then, Ma'am. That should fit nicely into the story I've prepared. I'll say that my branch of the Pevensie family was in any case a junior branch of the family, even before we became Squibs, and since we were not in line to inherit, we had been living in Australia for the past few years. As the only Pevensie remaining, I've now come back to Britain to claim the Pevensie inheritance. Portraying myself as a distant member of the family will explain why any Pevensie relatives I may have had at Hogwarts never mentioned me." Truth be told, although Hermione recognised that her life would be much easier as the descendant of two magical lines, even it it were two lines of Squibs, deep inside her, she regretted the loss of her Muggleborn status. The put-upon young witch who had experienced so much prejudice had liked proving that she could be just as good as—if not better than—all the Purebloods who said she had no right to have magic.

"To change the subject," Hermione continued. "You told Professor Dumbledore's portrait that I'm going back to change history and you said that I could tell Professor McGonagall about myself. Is she the only one I should tell? What am I to do when I return to the past?"

"When you leave this room, you will be back in the past. We shall have the Headmaster summon the Order of the Phoenix for a meeting at the weekend. I will escort you to that meeting and once I have vouched for you to the members of the Order, you are to tell them everything. All that has happened, all that will happen. Once you have done that, you and the Order can begin to make plans, although I believe you already know what needs to be done?"

Hermione smiled and nodded. "If we delay the meeting until after school starts, then we'll be able to include in that meeting some of those who are still students in 1977 but who played important parts in the Voldemort Blood Wars in my original timeline. They should all be at that meeting. Lady Hogwarts, if you know the minds and hearts of the residents of Hogwarts, do you know when Peter Pettigrew joined the Death Eaters?"

"Yes, it was during the summer before his seventh year³. Unusually, Voldemort put a glamour on Pettigrew's Dark Mark. Voldemort wanted to keep his Gryffindor follower a secret so that Pettigrew could penetrate Headmaster Dumbledore's ranks, but he also needed to be able to summon young Wormtail. Voldemort was the only one who could glamour the Mark successfully and he did so only rarely. His glamour was unbreakable by anyone other than himself—or myself, should I chose to break it."

"Would you be able to place wards that will prevent Wormtail escaping or transforming into his Animagus form?"

"Most certainly, child."

"Thank you, Lady Hogwarts. What about wards restricting people's ability to talk about me and what they learn from me? Would that also be possible? I don't know if there are any other traitors in the Order but even if there aren't, I don't want to risk sensitive information being given away through people talking carelessly."

"I will do as you wish. Do you have any more questions before we begin the ritual?"

"Just one. It may be necessary for me to provide pensieve memories when telling my story but there are events that Harry experienced which I didn't. Indeed, memories of others, such as Professors Snape or Professor Dumbledore, might also be relevant. If you have access to all minds, would you also have their memories?"

"A very wise question, Miss Granger. I cannot give you other people's memories but I will be able to project such memories for others to view, if you wish. Now, come. It is time for the ritual. If you have any further questions, you can call on me at any time when you are in the past."

With that, the room changed. Lady Hogwarts led Hermione and her grandmother to a stone pedestal, the top of which formed a basin. Hermione snorted to herself, thinking that it looked like the ornamental bird bath that had once stood in the garden of her parents' home.

"The ritual itself is very simple," Lady Hogwarts explained. "You make a blood sacrifice and ask magic to accept your request—and, no, child; it is not dark magic, even though it is a blood ritual." The silvery figure took an athame from the basin and held it to Lilias. "As one born with the Pevensie name, your blood will also be needed. Please cut your right palm with this and let seven drops of your blood fall into the basin. Then give it to your granddaughter to do the same. Make sure that when your blood falls, it mixes in the basin with that of your grandmother, Hermione, and do not clean the athame in between; that way your blood will mix even further with that of your grandmother. Once you have done that, take your wand in your right hand—do not heal it—and state your intentions."

The two women did as instructed, Hermione carefully holding her hand over the drops of blood supplied by Lilias, so that both women's blood would mix together. Then she grasped the Elder Wand and declared, "I, Hermione Granger, descended from the House of Pevensie, take upon myself the family name. Henceforth, my name shall be Maia Pevensie and my date of birth shall be accepted as the first of May 1958. So mote it be."

Sparks flew up from the basin and a golden glow radiated out from Hermione. When the glow faded, she looked at her hand to see that the cut had been healed and the blood had been cleaned away. "Good," Lady Hogwarts declared. "Magic has accepted your intent. The ritual was a success. Lilias, it is time for you to return to the Afterworld."

Hermione hugged her grandmother fiercely. "I love you, Granny," she whispered. "Please tell Mummy and Daddy that I love them too."

"I will, sweetheart. Don't fret, my dear; we'll see each other again one day." With a final hug, Lilias faded away, leaving Hermione alone with Lady Hogwarts.

"When you leave this room, you will be back in the past. Go straight to the Headmaster's office and summon me upon arrival. Tell the gargoyle guarding the entrance that you were sent by me and it will allow you to pass," Lady Hogwarts explained.

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. "All that's needed to travel in time is to use the Room of Requirement? Isn't that dangerous? Anyone who knows of this room could just jump around in time and change things as they wish."

"No, child," Lady Hogwarts laughed. "Only I am able to use this room to manipulate time. Now, off you go. It's time for you to begin living your new life, Miss Pevensie."

Lady Hogwarts faded away and Hermione took a deep breath to steady her nerves; then she picked up Crookshanks' carrier and left the Room of Requirement, making her way to the Headmaster's office as instructed. "Lady Hogwarts has summoned me to the Headmaster's office," she told the gargoyle and it instantly allowed her passage. Nervously, Hermione stepped on the stone stairs and they carried her up to the office. She knocked on the door and went in.

"Good morning, Headmaster," she said to Professor Dumbledore. "I have been summoned here by Lady Hogwarts. My Lady?" she called and Lady Hogwarts appeared.

"Good day, Albus. This is Maia Pevensie. I have brought her here for a purpose. You will call a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix at the weekend, and she will explain it to you in full at that time. Miss Pevensie also needs accommodation in Hogwarts. As she is too old to be a student, I suggest an apprenticeship. I believe she would like to pursue a Mastery in Charms, if Professor Flitwick would be willing to mentor her."

The Headmaster looked to Hermione and asked, "Do you have a NEWT in Charms, Miss Pevensie?"

"No, sir. I'm afraid not. Circumstances prevented me from sitting my NEWTs. At OWL level, I received an outstanding grade in Charms, and also in Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, with an Exceeds Expectations in Defence Against the Dark Arts. I had successfully completed the sixth year syllabus in Defence, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes and covered the seventh year material in independent study."

Hermione had indeed covered the seventh year material in independent study. It was unlikely Hogwarts would reopen in the timeline she came from, with the castle badly damaged and only a few elderly members of staff who had nowhere else to go still inhabiting the few safe areas of the building. It would also be years—if ever—before there would again be a functioning Ministry and Magical Examinations Board in Britain. Despite that, Hermione had spent the last few months catching up on the course material for what should have been her final year of school, for no reason other than as a means of passing the time.

"It would be best, sir, if you could wait until the meeting, when I will be able to explain those circumstances to you. I would recommend the meeting start on Saturday morning, as it will most likely take the whole day and may even carry over into Sunday. I would like to give you a list of other people who I believe are not currently members of the Order but are sympathetic to the cause, who should probably hear this story too, if that is acceptable to you? Some of them are students here at Hogwarts, I'm afraid. I will, of course, leave it to you as the Head of the Order to decide whether or not you wish to invite any or all of these people to attend, as I realise you may have concerns about safety. In the meantime, I would be willing to sit any test Professor Flitwick may wish to set me."

"Miss Pevensie's intelligence and her magical abilities are quite prodigious," Lady Hogwarts remarked. "I would put her on the same level as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick at the very least, and quite possibly on the same level as yourself, despite her youth. She may not have her NEWTs but I am sure that Professor Flitwick will be more than pleased with Miss Pevensie as an apprentice."

Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily. "Tappy," he called. With a crack, a house elf appeared. "Please would you ask Professor Flitwick to come to my office?"

With another crack the house elf disappeared. "Please, take a seat, Miss Pevensie," the Headmaster offered politely. "Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"No, thank you, sir, but I'd love a cup of tea, if I may?"

"Of course. Tappy," he called again. "Please could you bring tea for my guest here."

"Yes, Master Headmaster, sir," the elf said and a few moments later a tea tray appeared.

Soon after that, Filius Flitwick arrived. Albus quickly explained the situation to his colleague and Lady Hogwarts vouched again for Hermione's abilities.

"I'm sorry this is such short notice, Professor," Hermione apologised.

"That's quite all right, my dear," the diminutive Professor said. "I've finished my preparations for the new school year, so why don't I give you that test you suggested and then we can talk about a possible apprenticeship. My last apprentice completed their studies a couple of years ago, so I'll be pleased to have another apprentice, especially one apparently so promising."

"Thank you, Master Flitwick. If I pass your test and you agree to mentor me, when would you like me to begin my studies? I need to go to Gringotts tomorrow and I can get any materials and supplies you deem necessary at the same time, if that would suit you?"

"That would be perfectly fine, Miss Pevensie," he replied with a friendly smile.

Hermione followed Professor Flitwick to the Charms classroom, where he proceeded to give her a practical examination. The diminutive wizard then questioned Hermione on her knowledge of Charms theory, and what started as basic questions to gauge her comprehension of the subject soon turned into an in-depth debate, which bled over into other areas of magical theory and astounded the Charms Professor with the girl's intelligence and her broad knowledge and understanding. Professor Flitwick gladly signed her up as his apprentice and Hermione left his office with a wide smile on her face. For the first time in a very long time, she had actually enjoyed her herself and had something to feel positive about. At that moment, the emotionally broken young woman began to live again.

A young house elf called Ditsy showed Hermione to her new quarters. Some time previously, it had been common to welcome apprentices to Hogwarts but since Dumbledore's incumbency as Headmaster, it had gone out of fashion to apprentice at Hogwarts. Between the Grindelwald and Voldemort Wars and his additional duties as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Headmaster Dumbledore was juggling too many balls to promote the apprenticeship programme and had allowed it to fall by the wayside. At the height of the apprenticeship programme, there had been a dedicated Apprentices' Tower for the apprentices to reside in but with Hermione now being the sole apprentice in the school, she had instead been assigned a comfortable suite near the Ravenclaw Tower, so that she would be close to Master Flitwick.

Ditsy paused beside a painting of a Selkie frolicking in the sea with seals, otters and other sea-faring mammals. The man had glossy, black hair and deep black eyes, like those of his seal form. In some ways, the Selkie reminded her of her former Potions Professor, Severus Snape. "These be your rooms, Missy," Ditsy said and disappeared with a pop.

The Selkie looked at her with his glittering, black eyes, "What password would you like, Mistress?" he asked her.

Hermione smiled fondly at the picture, which reminded her of her Patronus. Most people who were Animagi had matching Animagus and Patronus forms, however, Hermione and Harry had proven to be the exceptions to the rule. After Voldemort had returned at the end of their fourth year, she, Ron and Harry had decided to become Animagi, as they had felt that the ability to transform into animals would provide them an added measure of protection. In an emergency, they would be able to transform discreetly and escape, with no one any the wiser as to how they had managed to disappear. Harry's godfather, Sirius, himself an unregistered, Grim-like, dog Animagus, and Professor McGonagall, a cat Animagus, had helped them. Surprisingly, Professor McGonagall had agreed that they should not register their Animagus forms and Hermione intended to remain unregistered at least until Voldemort and his Death Eaters had been dealt with once and for all.

Harry's Patronus was a stag, which represented his longing for his father and the safety and protection the sense of a father's love brought to him, but his Animagus form reflected himself and his love of flying, thus he had become a kestrel.

Ron's Patronus and Animagus matched, in the form of a Jack Russell terrier. Although Ron had been slightly disappointed that his Animagus could not fly like Harry's, a few sessions of romping around the garden of Grimmauld Place with Sirius in their Animagus forms had soon cured Ron of any regrets.

Hermione's Patronus was an otter and she had been concerned that her Animagus would match that. While she loved her Patronus, a water-based Animagus form would not be practical. However, the time she had spent as a cat-girl in her second year at Hogwarts, after accidentally using cat hair in her Polyjuice Potion, must have had a greater effect on her than anticipated and her Animagus was one of the smaller big cats. A jaguarundi, to be precise, otherwise known as the otter cat⁴, because it has an otter-like face, tail and movement and, much like the otter, is perfectly at home in water. Hermione was happy with that compromise and loved her Animagus form as much as she loved her Patronus.

In the ever-darkening atmosphere of the war, the three friends had clung to simple, everyday pleasures as a relief from grim reality and the boys had therefore chosen nicknames for their Animagi that reflected each of their favourite past-times. Harry's Kestrel was called Seeker for his position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Ron's Jack Russell was called Knight for his love of and exceptional skill at chess; he chose that particular piece in memory of the position he had played when facing Minerva McGonagall's giant chess set at the end of his first year at Hogwarts. The boys had suggested Hermione call her jaguarundi 'Cinnamon,' for the reddish-brown colouring of her coat, but Hermione, ever the bookworm, had wanted a literary name for her cat and had chosen Minnow, from Elizabeth Bishop's poem, _Lullaby for the Cat_⁵, hoping against hope that its message of happy times coming would indeed come true.

"My password will be a phrase, please. I'd like it to be, _Seeker, Knight and Minnow_."

"Very well." The Selkie bowed and the portrait swung aside.

Hermione entered the doorway to find herself in a comfortable sitting room that had warm, cream walls and was decorated in shades of blue and green and the colour of golden sand, giving a sense of living in a grotto beneath the sea. The serene colour scheme exuded feelings of calmness and tranquility, which she greatly appreciated, since although Hermione had a great affinity for fire in her magic, water always soothed her, bringing to her a sense of well-being, which perhaps explained in part her Patronus form. The décor continued throughout the suite, carrying through into the study, bedroom and bathroom. To her great delight, there was even a kitchenette with a small dining table, and a separate area attached that was clearly intended for use as a potions lab. Hermione hummed with pleasure as she gazed around her rooms, taking it all in. This would be her home for the next few years and there truly was everything she needed within this one suite of rooms. Hermione suspected this was the doing of Lady Hogwarts and made a mental note to thank the Spirit of the Castle.

Hermione added her own wards to her rooms, which were based partly upon magical theories and practices which had not yet been invented in this time, and which were partly her own, unique creations. Between these wards and the fact that she was in an undamaged and strong Hogwarts, for the first time in over a year, the sad, young witch felt relaxed and safe enough to unpack all her belongings from her beaded bag. With a yowl from her pet reminding her that he was still stuck in his carrier, she first let him out, placing his soft, fluffy, cushioned, Muggle-style pet bed near the hearth in the sitting-room, ready for when he wanted to curl up in front of the fire.

Hermione begged off attending supper in the Great Hall that evening, claiming that she was too tired after her journey. In truth, she was overwhelmed by the day's events and the information that she had been bombarded with, and needed some quiet time to unwind and process all that had occurred. After a long, soothing bath, Hermione asked Ditsy to bring her a meal and once she had finished eating, she sat staring into the flames of the fire, lost in thought, as she absently petted the purring Crookshanks, who was contentedly curled up beside her on the sofa.

_'During the Order meeting at the weekend, Professor Dumbledore won't want me to tell anyone of my timeline. He'll try to insist that the future shouldn't be changed. Of course, he's right that terrible things can happen to those who meddle with time but I trust Lady Hogwarts. If she says this was foreseen by the Founders and is necessary, then so be it. I'll need to be assertive and take charge of the meeting.'_ With that conclusion, the exhausted young witch turned in for the night, finally able to sleep soundly and peacefully once more, in the safety of a strong and undamaged Castle Hogwarts.

.o.O.o.

¹ Everything I've written about CS Lewis, the name Pevensie and the Chronicles of Narnia is, of course, complete fiction on my part, apart from the fact that he dedicated _The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe_ to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield. This is not a crossover, rather when I was considering names that Peverell could have evolved into, Pevensie came to mind and I couldn't resist using it.

² I know it's a bit of a cliché in fanfic to call Hermione Mia/Mya/Maya/Maia but I find that using a name which could be regarded as a short-form for Hermione makes the story easier to read than if it were a completely different name. Not to mention that it should be something she will answer to reasonably instinctively and should therefore have a familiar sound to Hermione.

³ I believe that in canon, Peter didn't become a Death Eater until after he had left Hogwarts but I hate the character (rats give me the shudders and rat-like humans are even worse) and so, since this story is AU, he will become a Death Eater earlier than in canon, as I dislike him too much to write him as anything other than bad. My apologies to any Peter Pettigrew fans who are hoping to see him redeemed; it's not going to happen in any story I write, I'm afraid.

⁴ www dot knowyourcat dot info / lib / jaguarundi dot htm

⁵ allpoetry dot com / poem / 8493575-Lullaby_For_the_Cat-by-Elizabeth_Bishop


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Hermione woke early the next morning, more refreshed and energetic than she could remember feeling for a long time. Dressing quickly, she had a light breakfast and made her way out the castle. Once beyond the gates, the bushy-haired witch apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and entered Diagon Alley. Not even pausing to catalogue the differences in the cobbled, magical street between her time and now, she headed straight for Gringotts, where she was met by a goblin she recognised: Griphook. During the war, she, Harry and Ron had rescued him from captivity in the dungeons in Malfoy Manor. They had asked the goblin to help them break into the Lestrange vault, promising him the sword of Gryffindor in return, although the boys were planning all the while to double-cross Griphook and keep the sword. Griphook had done as bidden but had then double-crossed them in turn, taking the sword of Gryffindor and leaving them to be captured by the angry goblins of Gringotts but, fortunately, they had managed to escape. While Hermione had a certain amount of sympathy over the goblin foiling their planned double-cross regarding the sword, she had less sympathy about him setting off alarms and trying to get them captured; she regarded it as a poor thanks for rescuing him from Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Gritting her teeth and forcing herself to be polite to this particular goblin, she bowed her head and asked him, "Greetings, noble goblin. I would like to see the account manager for the Pevensie accounts, please."

"And you are?" the goblin sneered.

"Maia Pevensie, currently the last of the line," she answered impassively.

A look of surprise briefly crossed the goblin's face before he turned and beckoned her to follow him. They made their way in silence through the bank. Griphook escorted Hermione to a non-descript reception room. "The Pevensie account manager will be with you shortly," he said and left.

Forty minutes later, Hermione left the bank with a refilling money bag tucked securely in her pocket. She was now the owner of several substantial vaults. She felt guilty about claiming the entire Pevensie inheritance when she knew her younger self would be joining the wizarding world in the future, but decided she could set up a vault for young Hermione after she was born. Hopefully, when the war was over, she would safely be able to make contact with the Grangers. Thanks to Granny Lilias being a Squib, they could be told about the wizarding world as soon as young Hermione started showing signs of accidental magic, so she and Granny Lilias would be able to prepare young Hermione for the world of magic in a way that she herself had not experienced in her original timeline.

Upon leaving Gringotts, Hermione decided to pay a visit to Ollivander's Wand Shop. Although she had brought the Elder Wand from her timeline back with her from the future, Hermione knew that the version from this timeline was currently in the hands of Professor Dumbledore and she did not want to risk him recognising her wand, knowing his obsession with the Deathly Hallows. _'Oh well, it never hurts to have a second wand. Besides, I need to be very careful when I use that wand, otherwise it could end up recognising someone else as its Master and that would be disastrous if it were a Death Eater or even Tom Riddle himself,'_ she admitted to herself.

"Good morning, Miss...?" Mr Ollivander greeted her as she entered the shop. "How may I be of assistance today?"

"It's Pevensie, sir, and I need a new wand, please," she replied.

"And yet I sense a wand already in your presence?"

"Mine was stolen from me some months ago. I never managed to recover it and I've been using an old family wand since. However, I'm starting an apprenticeship with Professor Flitwick at Hogwarts and I need a wand that has chosen me. Oh, and a double holster too, please. Auror grade, with invisibility, anti-summoning and anti-theft charms. I've learned my lesson about not keeping my wand safe," she said wryly.

"Very well. Charms, hmm? These should all be good for Charms work," he said, pulling out several boxes from the shelves and piling them on the counter.

Hermione was taken aback when she saw the first wand. "Vine, ten and thee-quarter inches, dragon heartstring, quite pliable," Mr Ollivander announced. Hermione's heart skipped a beat as she recognised her old vine and dragon heartstring wand. Schooling her face not to give away her excitement and pleasure at seeing that particular wand, she reached for it eagerly. To her surprise, she did not feel the sense of warmth and rightness that normally emanated from her much-loved wand. _'I guess that wand is destined for the younger me,'_ she concluded regretfully, disappointed that it no longer called to her.

The next wand Mr Ollivander produced was, "Rowan¹, also ten and thee-quarter inches and dragon heartstring, supple and swishy." Hermione grasped the wand and immediately felt a welcoming warmth. She flourished it and golden sparks issued forth.

"Curious. Witches and wizards chosen by rowan wands tend to be compatible with those chosen by elder wands," said Mr Ollivander meaningfully. Feeling the hairs rise at the back of her neck but taking care only to look mildly curious, Hermione raised an eyebrow. The peculiar man was strangely omniscient and Hermione found it quite disturbing.

"I can recall every wand I have ever sold," he continued, "and I cannot recall a single instance of an owner of a rowan wand ever becoming evil or turning to the Dark Arts. Rowan has a reputation for protection, and produces powerful and hard to break Defensive Charms. Rowan wands can match or even outperform others in duels, Miss Pevensie. Master Flitwick himself was a renowned duelling champion in his youth but with this wand, I do believe you could surpass even him."

Smiling politely, Hermione paid for her new wand and holster and left the shop. _'That man gives me the heebie-jeebies,'_ she mused and gave an involuntary shudder. _'I wonder if he truly knew that I'm in possession of a version of the Elder Wand. Or perhaps he just knows that it belongs to the Pevensie line.'_

Hermione took the opportunity while she was in Diagon Alley to stock up on supplies. After a stop at Flourish & Blotts for the texts Professor Flitwick had recommended, and at Scribbulus Writing Equipment for quills, ink and parchment, she stopped off in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to get some new robes and a cloak, as those she had were quite old and shabby. She also splurged and bought herself a new bookbag, to which she intended to apply featherlight, strengthening and undetectable expansion charms, like those on her trusty beaded bag. Then, deciding at last minute that she might find it useful to have an owl of her own rather than relying on the school owls as she had done before, she made a stop at Eeylops Owl Emporium where she purchased a graceful, female, tawny owl with intelligent eyes, that she called Charis².

Charis hooted in approval when Hermione suggested the name and Hermione smiled happily at her new owl. "Shall I apparate us both to Hogwarts or would you prefer to fly there yourself?" she asked, as she left the shop, with her owl in tow. Charis fluttered her wings and Hermione let her out the cage, shrinking the cage, perch and the other owl supplies she had bought and slipping them all into her pockets.

"Your perch will be ready and waiting in my rooms by the time you get there. Once you arrive, I'll charm the window to allow you to come and go as you please, so you can spend time in the owlery as well. I wouldn't want you to have to make do without the company of your fellow owls. It'll have to wait until you get there, though, because I want to tie the spell specifically to you," she informed the pretty owl. "Any other owl looking for me can deliver their mail to the Great Hall with the rest of the post owls."

Charis flew up to perch on Hermione's shoulder and rubbed her head lovingly against Hermione's cheek before taking flight and heading off to Hogwarts. With all her errands complete, Hermione thankfully returned to Hogwarts with plenty of time to spare before the Express would arrive.

The new apprentice unpacked her purchases and set up the perch for Charis, before sitting down to relax as she began reading the book that Professor Flitwick had advised her to begin with for her apprenticeship studies. Absently noting the grumbling in her stomach, she called for Ditsy, who Lady Hogwarts had assigned to assist Hermione. "Hello, Ditsy. I believe I'm too late to eat lunch in the Great Hall today, so would you mind bringing me something to eat, please? Soup and a sandwich perhaps."

Moments later Ditsy reappeared with a tray laden with an aromatic and hearty barley soup with mushrooms and pearl onions floating in it, a thick chicken salad sandwich, made from delicious nutty, brown bread and containing an abundance of chicken and vegetables, a plate of sliced fruit, a glass of cold pumpkin juice and a pot of tea. "This looks positively mouth-watering. Thank you, Ditsy," Hermione smiled at the young elf. _'Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Sirius, Remus—anyone who knows me, really!—would be laughing themselves silly if they could see me accepting the services of a house elf,'_ she thought, as her face lit up with amusement.

Truth be told, Hermione was already quite fond of the little lady elf and was secretly rather grateful to Lady Hogwarts for assigning Ditsy to her. The young woman had also come to realise that trying to impose her views upon the elves was wrong. In fact, it made her decidedly uncomfortable to think that even if her intentions were kindly, by treating them as nothing more than simple-minded creatures who did not know what was best for themselves or who were incapable of making their own decisions, she had been no better than bigots like Dolores Umbridge, who detested magical creatures.

Consequently, Hermione had let go of her desire to free the house elves but she did intend to promote better treatment of them. The witch knew better than to insult Ditsy by offering her payment but had bought some boxes of Chocolate Frogs in Diagon Alley and she hoped Ditsy would appreciate the gift of these treats.

When Ditsy came to clear away the tray, she brought a message for Hermione. "Master Flitwick and the Headmaster wants to see you in the Headmaster's office, Missy Maia."

Taking with her the list of people she felt Professor Dumbledore should invite to the upcoming Order meeting, Hermione soon arrived at the office and, again, the gargoyle let her pass. _'I really should ask for the password,'_ she reminded herself. _'It might cause remark if I'm ever seen entering without it.'_

"Ah, there you are, Miss Pevensie," Professor Dumbledore said expansively, his eyes twinkling. "I see you had no problems getting past the gargoyle."

"Yes, it may be a good idea if you were to give me the password, though, Headmaster?"

"Of course. The current password is _Tooty Frooties_."

Hermione winced as she sat down next to Professor Flitwick. _'What is his obsession with sweets all about?'_ thought the dentists' daughter, who did not really care much for them herself.

"We're just waiting for one other person. Sherbet Lemon?" the Headmaster said.

"No, thank you," she replied as the door to the office opened. To her great delight, it was Professor McGonagall.

"Ah, Minerva. Do please join us," twinkled the Headmaster expansively. "This is Miss Pevensie, who will be apprenticing with Filius in Charms. Unfortunately, circumstances which she will explain to us at the Order meeting I'm calling this weekend, have prevented Miss Pevensie from sitting her NEWTs, although Filius has tested her in Charms and was quite impressed with her knowledge and skill. I also understand from a reliable source that Miss Pevensie is equally knowledgable and skilled in all the subjects she chose to study until now. However, Miss Pevensie, Professor Flitwick and I have decided that it would be a good idea if you were to sit your NEWTs before you begin your apprenticeship. It would cause remark otherwise, you see. We will, of course, give you time to prepare. When do you think you will be ready to sit them?"

"I'm ready any time, sir," she replied thoughtfully. "Headmaster, as I explained yesterday, at OWL level, I received outstandings in Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, with an Exceeds Expectations in Defence Against the Dark Arts, however, I cannot prove these results as there will be no records available."

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw Professor McGonagall raising an eyebrow at that last remark. Pretending to be oblivious to her former Head of House's surprise, she ploughed on, having actually given this some thought as she ate lunch—the Headmaster had merely pre-empted her. "Would it be possible for me to sit NEWTs in Defence, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes, and also OWLs in Astronomy, History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures? Or would it be best if first I re-sit all my OWLs and then sit my NEWTs?" She smiled sheepishly, "I would kind of like to improve on my score for my Defence OWL, although I know it's rather pointless if I'm going to be sitting the NEWT. But, as you say, it may cause remark if anyone is interested enough to go looking for my OWL results and can't find them."

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "I must say, I'm really quite curious to hear your story at the Order meeting, Miss Pevensie. Minerva, please could you contact Griselda Marchbanks and arrange for Miss Pevensie to sit her exams over the next few weeks? I agree that Miss Pevensie should first sit her OWLs and then her NEWTs. For the subjects that have both a practical and a written element, that means you will be sitting one exam a day, Miss Pevensie, while for the written-only subjects you can sit two exams a day. That will mean eight days for your OWLs and six days for your NEWTs. Filius, do you mind waiting a few weeks to begin working on Miss Pevensie's apprenticeship?"

"Not at all, Albus. In fact, that will give me sufficient time to prepare, as the start of the school year is always busy and I wasn't expecting to take on an apprentice this year, although in the case of Miss Pevensie, I'm quite delighted to do so." He smiled at Hermione, who beamed back in pleasure.

"Well, I'll make the arrangements with Madam Marchbanks and let you know your exam timetable, Miss Pevensie. It's possible you'll need to go to the Ministry, rather than sitting your exams here," Professor McGonagall said austerely as she stood to leave.

"Whichever best suits the examiners, Professor," Hermione said softly. "I appreciate their taking the time to arrange a special exam session for me and I would not put them to any more inconvenience than absolutely necessary." At that, Professor McGonagall gave one of her rare smiles, and left the room.

"Miss Pevensie," the Headmaster said. "Hogwarts has four Houses, named after each of our Founders, and the first year students are all sorted into a House during the Welcome Feast on the first day of the school year. Each House has its own attributes and traits and it has become a custom also to sort any apprentices or professors who did not themselves attend Hogwarts, in order to see which House would they should have belonged to had they attended our fine school. You will be sorted after the first years. You will also be expected to sit at the Head Table during meals."

"That will be fine, Headmaster," she agreed placidly, having expected this. Bidding the two men farewell, she also departed, heading back to her rooms to prepare herself mentally for advent of the students that evening, in particular the Marauders and Severus Snape, who she had known as adults when she herself was a child.

When Ditsy notified her that the Hogwarts Express had arrived in Hogsmeade and that the students were making their way up to the castle, Hermione headed down to the Great Hall. As she entered, Professor Flitwick waved her over to him. "It's a tradition that the four Heads of House sit on either side of the Headmaster, two on each side, and then the rest of the staff sit to the side of us. As an apprentice, you will be seated at the end of the table." He escorted her to the seat nearest the staff entrance. "This is Madam Pomfrey, our school Medi-witch," he introduced her to the woman sitting in the seat next to hers.

Hermione smiled at Madam Pomfrey in greeting, grateful to be seated next to the kindly Medi-witch instead of the irascible Librarian, who was at the other end of the table. _'Mind you, I'd even rather sit next to Madam Pince than Professor Trelawney,'_ she thought ruefully. _'I'm just glad she's not a professor here yet. Although, if I have any say in the matter she won't be making that damned prophecy, so she won't ever become a professor here.'_ Dumbledore had employed Sybill Trelawney to protect her from Voldemort after she had made a prophecy about Harry Potter. Hermione intended to end the war long before Trelawney could make that prophecy.

"Maia Pevenise," she introduced herself. "I'll be apprenticing with Master Flitwick."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Pevenise," Madam Pomfrey welcomed her cheerfully. The two women chatted easily, until they heard the arrival of the carriages from Hogsmeade station. Soon, hordes of hungry students were pouring into the Great Hall and seating themselves at the four House tables, eagerly anticipating the imminent Welcome Feast.

As Hermione casually glanced around the Hall, her eye was drawn to a solemn young man at the Slytherin table, with lank, black hair, a large, hook nose, pale skin and jet black eyes. _'Professor Snape!'_ she thought. _'No, he's still Mr Snape in this time. I must be careful not to address him as Professor.'_ Sitting next to him was a younger boy, who looked remarkably like Sirius Black. _'That must be Sirius' brother, Regulus,'_ she continued her musings. As her gaze continued along the Slytherin table, Hermione shuddered inwardly as she recognised a few other students as Death Eaters with whom she had clashed in her previous timeline.

Swiftly looking away from the Slytherin table before her reaction to those pupils became noticeable, she looked towards the Gryffindor table instead. Hermione immediately recognised the younger Sirius Black and Remus Lupin and her eyes softened as she looked at them. _'It's good to see them so carefree,'_ she thought fondly. Neither man had been so light-hearted when she had known them in her youth and their exuberance was comforting to see. Hopefully, she would be able to save them from the misery and misfortune they had suffered in her past.

Next to Sirius and Remus was another boy she did not want to dwell on. Peter Pettigrew had turned traitor and had betrayed his best friends remorselessly. Hermione knew she would need to deal with him but now was neither the time nor the place; it could wait until the upcoming Order meeting that weekend.

Sitting next to the three boys was a couple who could only be James Potter and Lily Evans. Ever since entering the wizarding world at the age of eleven, her best friend, Harry Potter, had been told by everyone who met him for the first time that he was the image of his father, apart from his eyes, which were Lily's. Hermione could finally see the truth of this for herself and her heart ached as she looked at the young couple. _'This time, Harry is going to grow up with his parents,'_ she resolved fiercely. Hermione had still not got over the loss of her best friends from her time yet and she doubted that she ever would; she was determined to make sure that this time, Harry Potter would have a happy life.

Blinking tears from her eyes before they could fall, her eyes slid further down the table stopping at a young man who was vaguely familiar. _'That's Frank Longbottom, Neville's father, I think.'_ Noting the attention he paid to the round-faced young woman sitting next to him, she concluded, _'and that must be his mother, Alice.'_

At that point, the door to the Great Hall opened, rousing Hermione from her musings. She watched the two rows of children file in behind Professor McGonagall and smiled warmly as they were sorted. As the last little first year sat down at their new House table, the Headmaster stood.

"Professor Flitwick has a new apprentice this year. As is customary for one who did not attend Hogwarts, she will also be sorted. Miss Pevensie, if you would..."

Smiling graciously, Hermione rose and made her way from the Head Table to the sorting stool, which grew higher from its normal low height for the first years as she approached it—not that she was really that much taller than some of the firsties—and sat demurely while the Sorting Hat was placed once again on her head. _'Ah, Miss Pevensie. Or should I say Granger?'_ it said. _'Oh, don't worry, my dear. No one can hear me right now but you, as you should already know. Lady Hogwarts has instructed me to place you in Ravenclaw, if you have no objections?'_

_'No objections, sir. That will be fine, thank you,'_ she thought to the Hat.

_'And yet you were in Gryffindor last time, I believe?'_

_'That is correct, however, you wished to place me in Ravenclaw then but I insisted on Gryffindor. While I was happy in that House previously, this time I'm going to listen to you and Lady Hogwarts, and allow you to place me where you two deem best.'_

_'Very well,'_ the Hat conceded, obviously pleased that this time she would be heeding his advice. _'Truth be told, Miss Granger, you fit all of the Houses. You are the embodiment of Hogwarts. You have the courage and valour of Gryffindor, the loyalty and diligence of Hufflepuff, the intelligence and wit of Ravenclaw, and the cunning and ambition of Slytherin. Oh, don't be alarmed at that last, Miss Granger. Your experiences have taught you to be astute, shrewd and canny and what else is cunning but that? And you have plenty of ambition, not to become a Dark Lady or a dictator, but to prove yourself and to make life better for others. It's not a selfish ambition but it's ambition nonetheless.'_

_'Is that why I was chosen by Lady Hogwarts for this quest? Because I epitomise all the Houses?'_

_'Indeed it is. That, and the fact that you will be strong enough to do what needs to be done. Many would quail in the face of your task, even Albus, but you understand why it must happen. Once it's over, do not blame yourself—remember that you have a good and pure heart. Well, it's time to place you, so better be RAVENCLAW!'_ the Hat shouted out for the Hall to hear. As Hermione returned to her seat at the Head Table, she could see Professor Flitwick smiling delightedly at her placement in his House and she smiled back happily. The young woman was somewhat taken aback by the Hat's comments but if she were being truly honest with herself, she knew that she could not deny its assessment of either her character or the task ahead of her.

As the Feast progressed, Hermione continued to chat to Madam Pomfrey and to the Professor of Ancient Runes, Professor Babbling, who was sitting on Madam Pomfrey's other side. While Ancient Runes had not been her favourite subject at school, she had gained a new appreciation for its practical applications over the past year or so, due to the use of Runes in protective wards, and the conversation she had with Professor Babbling during the Feast was fascinating to the young witch.

After the Feast, Professor Flitwick asked her to stay back for a few minutes. "Albus, as the only apprentice in Hogwarts this year, I'm sure it will be quite lonely for Miss Pevensie. I'm allowing her access to the Ravenclaw common room, as she may enjoy conversing with the sixth and seventh years."

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione agreed, thankfully. She had spent enough time alone since the end of the Battle of Hogwarts that the thought of some congenial human interaction was very appealling to her.

"That, of course, is your prerogative, Filius," Albus acknowledged.

"Yes, yes," said the Charms Professor impatiently. "But, despite being close to them in age, Miss Pevenise is no longer a schoolchild. I have a feeling that Miss Pevensie has experienced far more of life than our students have and that it was not all kind to you?" He smiled at her kindly and continued to address the Headmaster. "Perhaps Miss Pevensie may also like some more mature conversation at times, even if we are all old fogies. I think we should also allow her access to the staffroom."

"Miss Pevensie?" Albus asked her.

"I'd like that, Headmaster," she answered gratefully. "It would be nice to make some friends closer to my own age but, as Professor Flitwick suggests, they are all rather young in experience. This would be like having the best of both worlds."

Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily. "Then I think we should indeed invite you into the staffroom, Miss Pevensie, and there's no time like the present. We traditionally toast the start of the new school year after the Welcome Feast. Come along and I shall introduce you to the staff."

The two Professors led Hermione to the stone gargoyles that guarded the entrance to the staffroom. "_Qui intelligunt, docebit,_" the Headmaster said and the gargoyles sprang aside, granting entrance.

"Those that understand, teach?" asked Hermione, suprised.

"Aristotle, I believe," the Headmaster replied urbanely.

"Yes, sir. I believe the full quote is _Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach._ I was just surprised that the password was quite so... noble. I rather thought it would be more heartfelt. Something reflective of the fact that the staffroom is a refuge from the students, possibly. Or perhaps the name of a fine wine or brandy might be more apropos," she remarked, mischievously.

"I think we may have to put Miss Pevenise in charge of determining the passwords for the staffroom, Albus!" Professor Flitwick laughed as they entered the room.

Hermione spent a very pleasant evening getting to know the staff. She knew most of them from her time, of course, but the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Kettleburn, had retired just before she began to study that subject, the Divination Professor was not the same as in her time and Defence Against the Dark Arts tended to require a new teacher every year. Hermione made a point of spending some time talking to her former Head of House, Minerva McGonagall, and was delighted to receive an invitation to stop by Professor McGonagall's office any time. _'All in all, it was a good evening,'_ the younger woman concluded happily as she went to sleep that night.

The next morning, Professor McGonagall handed her an exam timetable. "Madam Marchbanks and Professor Tofty will be governing the exams between them. Madam Marchbanks observed that it will be just as easy for them to floo to Hogwarts as to floo to the Ministry, so one of them will be coming here every day. Your exams will all be taking place in the empty classroom next to my Transfiguration classroom, except for your Potions, Astronomy, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures practicals. You will be notified of the venue for each of those on the relevant day."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall. I greatly appreciate your arranging this for me and I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

"It was no problem, Miss Pevensie. I was pleased to do it. From the little I have seen of you so far, I rather think you're going to be a credit to Hogwarts. I could only wish that you had undertaken all your schooling here and that you had been sorted into Gryffindor."

Hermione could barely restrain her laughter. Grinning widely, she told the older woman, "I think you'll be quite surprised when you hear my story at the Order meeting this weekend."

The battle-worn witch was quite relieved to hear that the exams would be taking place at Hogwarts as she was rather jumpy about the idea of going to the Ministry every day for two to three weeks. Knowing that the Pevensie family line had recently been wiped out by the Death Eaters, Hermione did not want to put herself at any unnecessary risk.

Once she had finished breakfast, Hermione made her way to Professor Flitwick's classroom, hoping for a quick word before classes began. "Professor, would it be possible to see some old OWL and NEWT exam papers, or at least the current syllabi for the OWL and NEWT level classes? I'm quite confident in my ability to pass all my exams well, but for my peace of mind, I'd just like to check that there won't be any unexpected surprises."

"One moment, Miss Pevensie," he replied, rummaging in a desk drawer. "Ah, here they are. These are the Charms OWL and NEWT syllabi. I'll ask the other Professors to give you copies of their syllabi and I'm sure if you have any questions prior to the exams, they'll be happy to help you."

"Thank you, Professor," she replied, taking the parchments from him. With a quick _Gemino_, Hermione duplicated the syllabi, returning the originals to Professor Flitwick. Taking her leave, she returned to her rooms to review the outlines of the Charms course. She was quite surprised to see that the course contents were approximately one to two years behind the curriculum offered by Hogwarts in her time and when Professor Flitwick's personal house elf arrived soon after with the syllabi from all the other Professors confirming that this would be the case for all the subjects, she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she truly would have no problems with her exams. If anything, she would have to be careful not to appear too advanced if she did not want to bring unwanted attention to herself. Her biggest worry was accidentally revealing something of the future in her History of Magic exam but as the OWL focused on the witch burnings and the goblin wars of previous centuries rather than more recent history, she should be all right.

"So, what do you think, Crooks? Charis? Should I hold back a little in my exams?" she asked her pets affectionately. Crookshanks purred and Charis hooted in response. "What does that mean?" she asked amused. "Shall I ask you again and you can purr or hoot once for yes and twice for no?" This was something of a dilemma for her as, while she had learned the value of discretion, she genuinely hated not doing her very best in any academic endeavour. Resolving to discuss it with Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Dumbledore once she had enlightened them as to her background, she put the worry out of her mind as she began reviewing the course material for her first exams.

Hermione spent a pleasant day studying in her rooms, breaking only for meals. After supper, however, she decided to head over to the Ravenclaw common room and introduce herself. _'Staff last night, the students' turn tonight,'_ she decided. As well as retrieving the Elder Wand from Harry, she had also claimed his Marauder's Map and invisibility cloak. Never having been to the Ravenclaw Tower before, she allowed herself to be guided there by the Map. Climbing a spiral staircase, she found herself outside a door with neither a doorknob nor a keyhole. There was neither a portrait nor a gargoyle guarding the entrance. All she could see was an eagle shaped door knocker.

"If you look you cannot see me. And if you see me, you cannot see anything else. I can make anything you want happen, but later everything goes back to normal. What am I?" the door knocker asked her.³

"What an appropriate guardian to the entrance of the House of the Seekers of Knowledge," she said to the eagle. "I believe the answer is imagination."

"Correct," the eagle said and the door swung open. Hermione entered the commonroom, looking around. It was designed for studying, with the air of a library about it.

"Apprentice Pevensie, is it?"

Hermione looked round and saw a tall girl with black hair and green eyes approaching.

"Call me Maia," she said. "I'm sorry to disturb you but Master Flitwick thought I might like to interact with people my own age and as I'm currently the only apprentice, he invited me into the Ravenclaw common room, since the Hat sorted me into your House. I hope I'm not intruding?"

"Not at all," the girl said with a smile. "I'm Marsali McGonagall, the Ravenclaw seventh year prefect."

"McGonagall? Any relation to...?"

"My aunt," the girl interrupted with a resigned grin.

"You get asked that a lot then?" Hermione smirked in sympathy.

"Not that I mind really. I'm very fond of my aunt. Come on in and I'll introduce you to the other seventh years."

Again, Hermione spent a pleasant evening socialising with the Ravenclaws. _'It's a good thing today was only the first day of school or they'd probably be too deeply buried in books for an evening like tonight. Not that I'm one to talk, I was probably worse than any Ravenclaw in that respect,'_ she chuckled to herself.

By the time she bid the Ravenclaws good night, Hermione felt that between her two evenings of socialising, she had made the beginnings of good friendships with Professors McGonagall and Babbling and Marsali McGonagall and she was therefore feeling much more like a part of the school's population. _'Now all I need is to become friends with Remus and Sirius again, and with James and Lily as well, I hope. Perhaps Frank and Alice and maybe even Professor Snape, too.'_

Hermione fell asleep that night with comforting weight of Crookshanks on the bed next to her and the sound of his purring lulling her to sleep. She slept soundly and awoke ready for what would no doubt be a long and wearying day. Washing and dressing quickly, Hermione called for Ditsy.

"Would you mind bringing me breakfast, please, Ditsy, as I would rather not eat in the Great Hall this morning? Once Professor Dumbledore has finished his meal, could you ask him where and when I should meet him today?"

Ditsy brought breakfast and returned about half an hour later to clear away the dishes. "The Headmaster would likes you to come now, Missy," she squeaked.

Hermione thanked the little elf and made her way down to the Headmaster's office. "Good morning, Headmaster," she greeted Albus.

"Good morning, my dear," he smiled as she sat down. "Now, I've asked the Order to come to the meeting today and I've invited the additional people that you suggested, however, I can't have both myself and all four Heads of House incommunicado for an entire day, possibly an entire weekend."

"In that case, sir, I would request that Professor Slughorn not attend the meeting, if you can achieve this without him remarking upon it."

"That will work out just fine. Professor Slughorn already had plans this weekend and wasn't happy about rearranging them. I believe a meeting of his Slug Club played a large part in his plans. That is..."

"It's all right, Professor. I know what his Slug Club is," she interrupted hastily, not really wanting to hear anything more about that pretentious conceit of the Slytherin Head of House.

Professor Dumbledore twinkled at her. "You realise that he will probably try to recruit you for his club, Miss Pevensie?"

"He's certainly welcome to _try_," she replied disdainfully, screwing up her face in distaste.

With a laugh, he continued. "Not everyone is able to attend the meeting but we will still be nearly thirty people. Unfortunately, there won't be room for us all in my office and I don't want to take over the staffroom, as not all members of staff have been invited. Lady Hogwarts informs me, however, that you know of a suitable meeting room?"

Hermione smiled. "Yes, Headmaster, I do. Professor Dumbledore, I know that the entrance to this office is currently on the second floor but I'm also aware that it has been known to move around⁴. Are you able to move it? It would be best if it were on the seventh floor, as the room that Lady Hogwarts is referring to is there. If as many people as possible could floo to your office, we could easily make our way to the room without the whole school seeing all the guests arrive. It would be best not to alert any marked or potential Death Eaters about this meeting."

"And yet you asked me to include some Slytherins in this meeting?"

"Not all Slytherins are evil, Professor. And not all Gryffindors are good."

"Miss Pevensie..."

"Trust me, sir," Hermione said earnestly.

Albus nodded in resignation and changed the subject slightly. "I'm not aware of any suitable meeting rooms on the seventh floor," he remarked curiously.

"Trust me, sir." This time, it was said with an impish grin and the Headmaster twinkled back at her.

"All right, my dear. I'll leave this in your hands, although I'm afraid I'm not able to move the entrance to the Headmaster's office myself. It doesn't move often and it's at the discretion of the castle."

"Lady Hogwarts," Hermione called.

"Yes, child?"

"Would it be possible for the entrance to the Headmaster's office to move to the seventh floor today, please?"

"Of course, young Maia. That change will be made as soon as the students have all finished breakfast and are busy with their weekend pursuits."

"Thank you, my Lady," Hermione smiled at the Spirit of the Castle, as Albus raised an eyebrow in astonishment at the young woman's connection with the castle.

"Well, Miss Pevensie," he said. "I shall see you here again at ten o'clock. I'm looking forward to seeing this mysterious meeting room almost as much as I'm looking forward to hearing your story."

"Why don't we go along there now, Professor? As Headmaster, it should be you who reveals the room to everyone else."

"That would be very much appreciated, Miss Pevensie," Albus smiled benevolently at the considerate young woman. "Please lead the way."

Hermione accompanied the Headmaster to the seventh floor of the left wing and paused in the corridor beside the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy trying to teach trolls to ballet dance.

"Have you ever heard of the Room of Requirement or, as the house elves call it, the Come and Go Room, sir?" she asked with a smile.

"No, I can't say that I have," he replied, looking bemused.

"The room opens to those who need it. You must walk by this section of wall three times, thinking of what you require and the room will open to you. Inside, it will have become what you require—a training or duelling room, a meeting room, a study room, a living area, whatever you want it to be. One aspect of it is the Room of Lost Things, where much of the castle's junk ends up. You can refine your requirements once you are in the room, although you have to exit it to change it to a completely different requirement, and the more specific you are, the better. For example, we require a meeting room large enough for nearly thirty people, that will be comfortable enough to spend a long day in without becoming claustrophobic or crowded. We require comfortable seating and possibly tables, for anyone who wishes to take notes. We also wish to deny access to anyone who supports the Dark Lord or who we have not invited to the meeting. I would suggest we allow the house elves entrance, so they can contact you or the Heads of House if need be and so they can serve food and drink, since the room cannot create the Physical Exceptions to Gramp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, such as food. We should also allow the entrance of Patronuses, in case anyone needs to be contacted urgently. As long as someone remains in the room, it will retain the transformation requested. Once everyone leaves, it goes back to its natural state, whatever that is. Would you like to try and call forth the room, Professor?"

Professor Dumbledore had listened to Hermione with an ever-growing expression of wonderment on his face as she described the capabilities of the Room of Requirement. "Thank you, my dear. I'd be delighted," he said brightly. He paced three times along the stretch of corridor and grinned with delight when a door appeared. He opened it and looked inside, to see several comfortable looking sofas and armchairs in black, with plenty of squashy cushions in the colours of all four Houses, all grouped around a large hearth that was burning brightly; a large, woolly black rug with the Hogwarts Crest in the centre spread out on the floor in front of the sofas and armchairs to stop feet from getting cold on the stone floor; and some small tables scattered around for people to lay plates of food and drinks on or to use as writing tables. "What a wonderful thing," he said in awe. "Thank you for showing this to me, Miss Pevenise. Will you be telling me how you came to know of this marvellous room?"

"That should come up in my story, yes," she smiled.

As Albus began to experiment with the setup of the room, Hermione politely excused herself and returned to her suite to calm herself down. Now that the meeting was almost upon her, she was beginning to feel very nervous. She meditated until she was serene and felt ready to tackle what she was sure would be a contentious and emotionally draining meeting, then, a few minutes before ten o'clock, she returned to the Head's office, which was now on the seventh floor as promised by Lady Hogwarts, not far from the Room of Requirement.

.o.O.o.

¹ All the information given about rowan wood wands is taken/paraphrased from _Pottermore_ and the Harry Potter wikia.

² Pronounced KA-riss. It's of Greek origin and means grace.

³ In canon, the riddles were far more esoteric and philosophical but I couldn't come up with anything to match and so used a more standard riddle. I was tempted to have the door knocker ask "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" as per Douglas Adam's _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ series but the original radio series (which predated the books and tv series) didn't air until six months after this scene takes place, so I refrained.

⁴ In _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_, the entrance to the Head's office on the second floor, while in _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_, it's on the seventh floor. Given the castle's stated ability to move rooms, walls, corridors etc, it's entirely possible the Head's office could move too.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

The Headmaster's office was already crowded when Hermione entered it at ten o'clock. "Ah, Miss Pevensie," he said cheerily as she entered. "The meeting room is already set up—my personal house elf is overseeing it now—so would you mind escorting everyone here to the room, while I wait for the rest of our guests to arrive?"

"Of course, Headmaster," she smiled. "If you would all follow me?"

Hermione led everyone out of the Headmaster's office and a short way down the corridor. Seeing the door to the Room of Requirement was in place, she opened it and led everyone inside. "Please make yourselves comfortable," she bade them all politely.

"If Missy is here, Tappy will be goings now," squeaked the Headmaster's elf.

"Of course. Thank you for waiting for us, Tappy."

The elderly elf bowed to Hermione and disappeared with a pop. She turned around to see the guests all looking quizzically at her. Glancing quickly around the room, she saw that those who were present had all come from outside the school. _'The Headmaster must have decided to ask the staff and students to arrive after everyone else,'_ she surmised.

"I'm Maia Pevensie," she introduced herself. "I'm apprenticing with Charms Master Flitwick."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my dear." Hermione looked at Molly Weasley, who was smiling warmly at her, with Arthur sitting next to her, and could barely restrain herself from running over and hugging the couple who had been like second parents to her.

Next to Molly, were a couple of red-headed, identical young men. _'These must be Molly's brothers, Gideon and Fabian,'_ Hermione concluded. Seeing them brought an ache to her heart, since at first sight they reminded her very much of their nephews, Fred and George Weasley.

"I don't remember seeing this room before," one of them observed, looking round curiously.

Hermione immediately got the impression that they were rather more familiar with the castle than most students, like the Marauders and the Weasley twins from her time. _'Harry, Ron and me, too,'_ she admittedly wryly to herself.

"The castle does have a habit of redesigning itself," she said blandly, shrugging her shoulders as she looked innocently at the Prewett twins.

Fortunately the door opened again before the twins could question her further, and the Headmaster came in with the Hogwarts contingent. Once everyone was sitting comfortably, the Headmaster stood to open the meeting.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming today. I shall explain briefly what this meeting is about and then we can discuss things in more detail. As you all know, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are causing havoc in the wizarding world and the violence they are using is escalating. I have formed an organisation called the Order of the Phoenix, to assist in countering Lord Voldemort and his followers when the Ministry is unable to do so. All of you here today are either already members of the Order or are sympathetic to its cause."

"So why are these two slimy, evil, Slytherin gits here?" Sirius Black demanded, pointing at Severus Snape and his brother, Regulus, who were sitting quietly in a corner, no doubt wondering much the same thing themselves. "I don't know what you think you're doing here but get out before I hex you both!"

"Now, now, boys," the Headmaster began when Hermione interrupted, having no patience with Sirius' histrionics and wanting to head him off before he could build up a full head of steam.

"Headmaster, if I may?" she asked politely.

"Of course, my dear," he answered and she turned to the Marauders.

"For your information, Mr Black, I asked the Headmaster if he would be kind enough to organise this meeting and to invite all those here today," she said sweetly, before continuing with rather more venom in her voice. "Unlike what you just did, I didn't dictate to him, I merely _asked_ him if he would consider inviting these people and then I left it to _his discretion_. Who are you to question Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black? What right do you have to challenge the Headmaster—in his own school, no less!—as to who he may or may not invite to a meeting of an organisation which he heads? Regulus Black and Severus Snape are here with the Headmaster's agreement. Little though you may want to accept this, while they may be Slytherin, they are most certainly _not_ evil gits. Quite frankly, Severus Snape is worth a dozen of you!"

By the time she finished, Hermione was nose to nose with him. Several people in the room were trying hard not to laugh at the sight of Sirius Black cowering in his seat while being faced down by the petite witch. Others, like the Prewett twins, were laughing openly, while Severus and Regulus were astonished at being defended by this fiery witch with whom they had never even so much as spoken.

Hermione took a deep breath, looking round the room. "I apologise to you all for my rudeness. However," and here she looked back warningly at Sirius and his friends, "we have a lot to cover today, so if you keep interrupting, I _will_ silence you for everyone else's sake. I'm sure no one wants to be here all night, because of your lack of control."

"That won't be necessary, Miss Pevensie," said a man who looked so like James Potter that he could only be his father, Charlus¹. "If my son and his friends cause trouble during this meeting, I'll silence them myself," he declared, looking sternly at the Marauders, who all gulped nervously.

"Thank you, Mr Potter; I appreciate that," she replied, smiling gratefully at him, before to her seat. "Professor Dumbledore, would you be kind enough to introduce Lady Hogwarts and then we can begin the meeting?" she asked.

"How do you know about her, young lady? That information is privileged. Only the Headmaster, the Deputy Head and the Heads of House are aware of this," Professer McGonagall questioned with a disapproving frown.

"Lady Hogwarts introduced herself to me, Professor. She wants to participate in this meeting. In fact, she is the one who decided this meeting was necessary, I just made the request on her behalf," Hermione explained, to Professor McGonagall's great surprise.

"Who's Lady Hogwarts? Is she the heir to one of the Founders?" asked one of the Prewett twins cheekily.

Professor Dumbledore sighed. "My Lady? Would you be kind enough to join us?"

A moment later, the silvery Patronus-like form of Lady Howgarts appeared.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as Professor McGonagall explained, this is restricted information and should not be discussed outside this room…"

"That will not be a problem, Headmaster," Lady Hogwarts interrupted. "I have placed wards to ensure that nothing that will be revealed during this meeting can be spoken of outside this room or your office; and the only people who can inform anyone not present here today of our discussions will be yourself and Miss Pevensie."

Albus nodded in acknowledgement and continued his explanation. "When the Four Founders built Hogwarts, they imbued the castle with magic. You are all familiar with the moving staircases and many other examples of magic within this castle but what you don't know is that Hogwarts is sentient. Lady Hogwarts is the spiritual embodiment of Hogwarts and she is normally revealed, as Minerva has said, only to the Headmaster or Headmistress, their Deputy and the Heads of House. However, somewhat unusually, she also has a strong connection with Miss Pevensie."

"It could be said that Miss Pevensie is my Champion. Nay, the Champion of the very wizarding world. The Founders foresaw a time when war would so destroy the wizarding world that it would be in danger of disappearing completely. They gave me the power to bring one person, who would have the knowledge and magical ability needed to avert this disaster, from the future back to the time when I deemed would be the most auspicious."

"Lady Hogwarts, this cannot be. We cannot change the timeline. Terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time," Albus declared severely.

"And sometimes, terrible things happen to wizards who don't!" Hermione snapped. "Believe it or not, I do actually agree with you, Headmaster, but I've seen the future and it's not pretty. Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Ministry, Diagon Alley, St Mungos… everything wizarding has been destroyed and there are very few magicals left in Britain. The wizarding world in this country has been decimated. Of the people in this room now, only myself, Mrs Tonks, Professors McGonagall and Sprout and Mol… Mrs Weasley survive. Many of you die within the next four years. The Founders planned for me to return to this time, Headmaster, and just by virtue of my being here and having interacted with people of this time, the timeline has already been irrevocably changed."

Dumbledore blinked at the last comment. This had not occurred to him but the young woman was undoubtedly correct that her very presence had already altered the timeline.

"I trust the Founders, Headmaster, and I trust Lady Hogwarts. If they feel it's necessary that I meddle with time, then it must be so—regardless of what penalty magic may enact upon me as a result," she assured him solemnly.

"You are prepared to accept consequences to you personally?" Albus regarded her sombrely.

"Yes, Headmaster, I am. My goal is to end this Blood War as quickly as possible. Whatever happens to me after that, I accept."

"And you think you can stand up to Death Eaters, little girl?" sneered Alastor Moody patronisingly.

"I know I can, Auror Moody. I've been fighting this war since I was eleven years old," she replied. "If you wish, I'll duel you, together with any two other people in this room that you care to select, right here and now to prove I can take care of myself. If you would care to add a duelling area to the room, my Lady?"

"Not now, my Champion. If you wish to duel Auror Moody after the meeting, however, I will gladly provide the duelling arena you require. As for you, Headmaster, has it not occurred to you that perhaps Miss Pevensie has already paid the penalty? You will understand more after she completes her story and you have learned what she has lived through since the age of eleven, I assure you."

"Thank you, my Lady," Hermione bowed her head to Lady Hogwarts in thanks, before addressing the room at large. "I could just tell you what is needed to defeat Voldemort and we could all go home but Lady Hogwarts has advised me that I need to tell you everything. I'm going to give you an outline of what happens in the next couple of years—I can't tell you in great detail as technically I've not actually been born yet and so didn't live through it—and then I'm going to jump forward to when I'm eleven and start Hogwarts. You'll see everything in shocking, sickening detail. Lady Hogwarts will be able to project memories, not just from myself but also from other key players in the war, for you to see. The reason that I have asked all our non-Order guests here today is that you all either played a major role in fighting this war or else were affected by it significantly.

"Before I begin, however, I must ask Lady Hogwarts if she can detect the Dark Mark when present in Hogwarts?"

"Of course, my Champion."

"Can you please identify and restrain anyone in this room who has the Mark? And remove any glamours hiding it? If any of them should happen to be an Animagus, please also erect wards against Animagus transformation."

There was a flash of light and then Lady Hogwarts spoke. "It is done."

Hermione glanced quickly around the room and saw that as she expected, the only person bound with restraints was Peter Pettigrew. She walked over to him and with a silent spell severed the left sleeve of his robes, to reveal the Mark.

"Are there any others in this school with the Mark?"

"Outside this room there are two who are already marked and one who is not yet marked but who has given his commitment to become marked after he comes of age, which he will do shortly. Those three and Mr Pettigrew are the only Death Eaters currently in Hogwarts. There are many who support their ideals but you need worry only about those four²."

"Thank you, Lady Hogwarts. Is there somewhere secure that Pettigrew can be confined until we are finished here and Aurors Moody, Shacklebolt and Bones can take him into custody?"

"Indeed there is, and I guarantee none will be able to access his cell until I release him from confinement."

Another flash and Peter Pettigrew was gone, leaving his rather stunned friends behind.

"I'm sorry; I know how close you were, but I had to make you all aware that he is a marked Death Eater," Hermione said to the remaining Marauders.

"What do you know? Peter was probably forced into taking the Mark. He won't do anything bad, he doesn't have it in him," said James stonily.

"Oh, believe me, the Peter Pettigrew I know is no innocent," Hermione said grimly. "Just one last thing before I begin: Mr Lupin and Mr Snape, I must apologise to you both in advance as I will be revealing things about each of you that you will undoubtedly consider deeply private. Unfortunately, I can't tell this story without revealing those things and I truly apologise most sincerely for the embarrassment and discomfort I will no doubt be causing you."

Severus nodded stoically in acknowledgement and Hermione sighed, regretting the need to expose his secrets, as she knew that he would find the experience completely humiliating.

"I need to begin with some back history, beginning with one Tom Marvolo Riddle." Hermione drew fiery letters in the air. Then, with a flick of her wand, they rearranged themselves into I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. Ignoring the gasps, Hermione continued to explain the background of the man that so many feared.

"Tom Riddle is a Half-blood. His mother was Merope Gaunt and his father a Muggle who lived near the Gaunts. The Gaunts were the last direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin but they were so inbred that they were all practically imbeciles and little more than Squibs. Merope added new blood into the line by wedding a Muggle, thus giving birth to an intelligent and magically powerful son. Merope, who was somewhat unprepossessing in appearance, in addition to being a simpleton, trapped Tom Riddle Senior with love potions and he eloped with her. During her pregnancy she either regretted dosing him or else simply ran out of potion and had no means to obtain or brew more. Once the potion was out of his system, Tom Riddle Senior immediately abandoned Merope and returned to his home, justifiably claiming that he had been tricked and trapped. Merope died during childbirth in a Muggle orphanage, but lived long enough to name her child after his father, Tom Riddle, and her father, Marvolo Gaunt.

"Tom Riddle grew up in that orphanage but there was always something different about him. As a young boy, he already knew that he could do unusual things—not knowing this to be magic—and he consciously used this ability to harm other children in the orphanage. He mostly kept his nose clean while he attended Hogwarts as I believe he knew that Professor Dumbledore was keeping an eye on him, and so was made Head Boy in his seventh year. It was he who opened the Chamber of Secrets—yes, it does exist but you need to be a Parselmouth to open it—and let out the beast that killed Myrtle, the ghost who haunts the second floor girls' toilets. The school was going to be closed after her death as it was deemed too dangerous for Hogwarts to remain open with the monster roaming free. This meant that Riddle would have to return to the orphanage, although he usually stayed at Hogwarts during the holidays. He didn't want to go back there so he framed Rubeus Hagrid, who was subsequently expelled, and the school remained open. I know Hagrid doesn't have quite the same concept of danger that the rest of us do with regard to magical creatures but he wasn't responsible for the opening of the Chamber and the death of Myrtle. Amongst his intimates, Tom Riddle was already using the name Lord Voldemort in school instead of his Muggle father's name, although, ironically, he created his new name from the letters of his despised Muggle name, and after school he immersed himself in the Dark Arts until he emerged as Lord Voldemort and began his Blood War.

"Now, let's skip forward to this time. The wizarding world is very much at war and in the House of Slytherin we have one who has a certain similarity with Tom Riddle in that he is the son of a Pureblood mother and a Muggle father. His home life is horrendous, far worse even than Tom Riddle's was in the orphanage. This boy from a poor and abusive background has had to struggle to find his place in a House of bigoted, supercilious snobs. His time in Hogwarts has been no better than his home life. Four boys, who are equally bigoted in their own way, have bullied him mercilessly ever since they met him on the Hogwarts Express at the start of their first year. They bullied him for no other reason than they felt like it and the staff did nothing to stop this."

"Harmless pranks, Miss Pevensie."

Hermione noted that Severus was crimson with embarrassment and this drove her to speak more bluntly than she perhaps might have done otherwise. "No, sir. Harmless pranks it most definitely was not! Once or twice could perhaps be deemed harmless pranks. Seven unrelenting years of constant, merciless bullying is unforgiveable. In my timeline, this escalated until two things happened this year that had serious and long-lasting consequences³. The first was when James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew attacked Severus Snape and humiliated him in front of the entire school. Lily Evans came to his assistance but, unfortunately, she unintentionally added to his mortification. Angry and humiliated, he lashed out at the nearest person—Lily—and told her he didn't need the help of a Mudblood. He regretted it as soon as the words were out his mouth but Lily never forgave him or spoke to him again, despite him going to extraordinary lengths to apologise to her."

"Well, that's a foul epithet," she sniffed haughtily.

"And that justifies you never speaking again to a man who has been your friend since childhood? Since long before you started Hogwarts or even knew of magic? It's just a word, Lily. It only has the power you give it," Hermione explained to the indignant girl.

"And what would you know about that? You're a Pureblood. You've never suffered the prejudice I have. I could never forgive anyone who called me that," the red-headed witch cried.

Hermione laughed harshly. "Really? For your information, I was a Mudblood to the people of my time, too. My grandmother was a Squib who married a Muggle. When my mother didn't have any magic, Granny decided not to tell her about the wizarding world. Granny died before I got my Hogwarts letter and, not actually having ever witnessed any of my bursts of accidental magic, she didn't know I was a witch and so had no reason to tell me about the wizarding world either. I believed until just a few days ago that I was Muggleborn. I was called a Mudblood not once, but continuously, practically from the time I entered the wizarding world. I can never get away from that word, so I decided to own it instead of letting it own me."

Hermione wrenched up the sleeve of her shirt and cancelled the glamour. Lily stared in horror at the word 'Mudblood' carved into Hermione's arm in angry, red letters. "That was done with a cursed knife," she explained quietly. "The scars will never heal or fade. I know it's a foul word, Lily, but it really is only a word and it can only hurt you if you let it. If you can never forgive, if you can't show understanding or compassion, you put yourself at risk of becoming cold, unfeeling and merciless. It's a short step from there to becoming inhumane and Dark. Forgiveness shouldn't be given without cause, it must be earned, but when someone shows true and geniune remorse, as Mr Snape did, then don't deny them absolution."

The room was deathly silent as Hermione stood up, needing a break to compose herself. "Excuse me for a moment," she said and crossed over to the table of refreshments set along the side of the room, coming back with a jug of pumpkin juice and a glass. "My throat is getting parched from all this talking." She poured herself a glass of juice and took a sip as she willed herself to calm down.

"The second event involved Sirius Black trying to kill Mr Snape. Remus Lupin is a werewolf. Professor Dumbledore offered him a place in Hogwarts and made provisions to keep him safely confined during his transformations. The Whomping Willow was planted the year he started Hogwarts. Underneath it is a tunnel that leads to the Shrieking Shack, where Remus is secured every full moon. Remus' friends worked out about his _furry little problem_, as they call it, and decided to do what they could to help him. This led the three of them to become unregistered Animagi back in their fifth year. James Potter is a stag, Sirius Black is a Grim-like dog and Peter Pettigrew is, appropriately enough, a rat. They're safe from Remus when in their Animagus forms as even if he did bite them, they wouldn't be infected with lycanthropy, so they spend the full moons with him. I believe that his transformations are easier on him with the company.

"Sirius, however, decided to lure Mr Snape to the Shack on the night of the full moon. Deliberately and with malice aforethought. Sirius never regretted this act as, apparently, the mere fact that it was Mr Snape was sufficient justification for attempted murder in his mind. Nor did Sirius ever stop to think what might happen to the Headmaster for taking such a risk in allowing a werewolf to attend Hogwarts if Remus had damaged Mr Snape in any way while in werewolf form. Sirius did not even seem to care that Remus would likely have been executed like a rabid animal had he bitten—or worse, killed—Mr Snape. Mr Snape was saved by James, who hadn't known of Sirius' plans, but Mr Snape, understandably given their history, never believed in James' innocence. When this incident was brought to his attention, Professor Dumbledore's main concern was to protect Remus. While I don't disagree with that as it certainly wasn't Remus' fault, I disagree very strongly with the way in which he did it. The Headmaster treated Mr Snape as the villain instead of the victim. Instead of showing even the slightest smidgeon of care or concern to Mr Snape after his ordeal, Professor Dumbledore threatened Mr Snape with Obliviation if he ever tried to tell of what had happened. The Headmaster never punished Sirius because he couldn't do so without the reason for the punishment going on record, so he did nothing.

"That night, Sirius Black and Albus Dumbledore created a Death Eater. If the Headmaster had explained that Remus was innocent in this and had _asked_ Mr Snape to keep quiet instead of threatening him, if he had come up with some other reason to punish Sirius, if he had shown a terrified and traumatised young man even the slightest degree of compassion, things might have been different. As it is, Professor Dumbledore essentially told Mr Snape that he is utterly worthless in his eyes, and the lack of punishment only reinforced Sirius' belief that he had done nothing wrong. The Death Eaters had been trying to lure Mr Snape into their ranks but his friendship with Lily had caused him to resist. After that night, and with nothing else to lose, it's hardly surprising Mr Snape chose to ally himself with the only people in the wizarding world who had ever shown him even a modicum of courtesy and respect. The blame for Severus Snape taking the Dark Mark lies solely with the Marauders and the staff of Hogwarts, who failed abysmally in their duty of care to one of their students."

Hermione noted that Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout were all looking rather shame-faced and she paused to take another sip of juice and gather her thoughts. "After school, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Pettigrew, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Marlene McKinnon, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn and Dorcas Meadowes all joined the Order of the Phoenix. The war escalated and the next few years were spent fighting. There were many deaths, with whole families being wiped out. Messrs Prewett, unfortunately, you were both among those killed but you went down fighting and took five Death Eaters with you.

"Molly Weasley wasn't an active member of the Order because of her duties at home—I'm sorry to spoil the surprise and tell others your news, Mr and Mrs Weasley, but you'll all learn this later in the story in any case as I'm afraid most of your children are an integral part of my story. Mrs Weasley is currently expecting again and will give birth to twin boys, Frederick Gideon and George Fabian on—appropriately for a couple of pranksters—April Fools' Day next year. She will then have another boy, Ronald Bilius, on the first of March 1980 and, finally, a girl, Ginevra Molly on the eleventh of August 1981."

"Seven children?" Molly whispered, looking shocked.

Hermione nodded with a Cheshire Cat grin. "And every one of them wanted and loved. In the meantime, James, Sirius, Frank and Alice all became Aurors. James and Lily married, as did Frank and Alice. Lily and Alice later gave birth to baby boys round about the same time. Neville Longbottom was born on the thirtieth of July 1980 and Harry James Potter was born the day after. Neville, by the way, is very much a mixture of his parents, while Harry is the spitting image of James, apart from his eyes, which are Lily's. Harry, Ron, Neville and I were all in the same school year and Ginny was in the year below us. We were all sorted into Gryffindor—all of your children were in Gryffindor, Mr and Mrs Weasley—and Harry, Ron and Ginny were my best friends, although we became close to Neville as well."

At this news, smiles could be seen all round the room. Babies were always to be celebrated.

"Why are you in Ravenclaw now if you were sorted into Gryffindor previously?" Professor McGonagall asked curiously.

"I was nearly a hatstall, Professor. Much like yourself, the Hat debated between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. It preferred Ravenclaw for me but ultimately chose Gryffindor because that was my preference at the time. This time round, I decided to let the Hat and Lady Hogwarts guide me and they chose Ravenclaw because they said I would be better off being free of the rivalry and antagonism between Gryffindor and Slytherin. I loved being in Gryffindor but after all I've been through, I think that I would prefer the calmer atmosphere of Ravenclaw this time, even though it means you will no longer be my Head of House. You were a mentor to me and we developed a strong friendship."

Minerva smiled at the young woman. "I understand that Professor Flitwick has given you permission to use the Ravenclaw common room? I'm extending the same permission for the Gryffindor common room, if you'd ever like to spend time in your former House."

"Thank you, Professor. I appreciate that," Hermione smiled back.

Hermione began to tear up as she began the next part of her tale. "The Ministry was on the verge of falling and the war lost when something unexpected happened on Halloween 1981. A few weeks before Harry and Neville were born, Professor Dumbledore interviewed a potential new Divination Professor. The Headmaster had been considering discontinuing the subject altogether and met with her only out of courtesy. The meeting took place in the Hogs' Head and, unfortunately, was overheard by a Death Eater. Sybill Trelawney's gift as a Seer is limited but she did make two genuine prophecies that I'm aware of and the first was made that evening. The Death Eater only heard part of it before he was ejected from the building. I'm only going to tell you that part now—I'll be telling the story as it happened, so some things may not make sense until later, but if I start jumping around, then I'll end up forgetting something important.

"The part of the prophecy the Death Eater heard was: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies_⁴_._ That prophecy could have referred to either Harry or Neville, as those criteria applied to both the Potters and the Longbottoms. When the Death Eater told Riddle of what he had heard, Riddle immediately made plans to kill both boys. Mr Snape was horrified when he realised this meant that Lily was now an even greater target and he immediately threw himself at Professor Dumbledore's mercy, changing his allegiance to try and save her. The Potters and the Longbottoms both went into hiding.

"I don't know the details of the Longbottoms' protections, I'm afraid, but I imagine that if they were under the Fidelius, then Madam Longbottom was probably their Secret Keeper. James and Lily chose Sirius as their Secret Keeper but Sirius and James chose to treat it like some kind of schoolboy prank. Sirius decided he was too obvious a choice and persuaded James and Lily to change their Secret Keeper. That in itself was not a bad decision but, unfortunately, instead of choosing someone like Professor Dumbledore, who is the only person Riddle ever feared, they chose Peter Pettigrew.

"They didn't consider Remus because it was known that by this time that there was a traitor in the Order, although it was not known who the traitor was. Remus was on a secret mission to the werewolves and was under suspicion, as it was thought that the Alpha of the werewolf pack may have forced him to betray the Order.

"So James and Sirius decided that Peter was the last person that anyone would think could be their Secret Keeper and while I appreciate they didn't know then that he was the traitor, they did know that there was a reason why he was the last person anyone would think could be the Secret Keeper. Even if Pettigrew hadn't been a traitor, if he had been captured by Death Eaters who were looking for Sirius, how long do you think he would have held out under torture before giving up Sirius or admitting that he himself was the Secret Keeper?" she asked, looking at the boys inquiringly. "Sirius would have died for you, James. Peter Pettigrew led Riddle right to your door. That was on Halloween 1981. Harry was fifteen months old. Lady Hogwarts, could you show Harry's memory of that event, please?"

"How much can a fifteen month old baby remember? How can he even understand what he's seeing?" asked Dorea Potter curiously.

"It was in his subconscious memory. After that night, he frequently dreamed of a green light coming towards him. Then, when we were in our third year at Hogwarts, he had a few close encounters with some Dementors and every time one got close, they drew his worst memories to the surface and he recalled this incident," Hermione explained gravely.

Lady Hogwarts displayed Harry's memory of his parents being killed. Rather than a pensieve, her depiction of the memory was like a holographic projection displayed in the centre of the room for all to see. As the memory advanced, everyone looked horrified. None of the people in that room doubted Hermione's story any longer; the memory was too compelling to dismiss.

When the memory ended, Lily was sobbing quietly and James was holding her tightly. Hermione cleared her throat apologetically and continued the tale.

"Sirius had gone to see Pettigrew that night. When Sirius couldn't find Pettigrew, he knew something was wrong. Sirius went straight to James and Lily's cottage in Godric's Hollow but arrived too late. Sirius took Harry from the ruins of the house but then Hagrid arrived. Hagrid had been sent by Professor Dumbledore, with instructions to take Harry. Sirius was Harry's godfather and was the person named in James and Lily's wills as Harry's guardian should anything happen to them, but Professor Dumbledore decided that Harry would be better with Lily's narrow-minded, bitter, jealous, bigoted sister, Petunia, and her equally narrow-minded, dim-witted, bull-headed, ill-tempered, bigoted walrus of a husband, and took it upon himself to deliver Harry there, depositing him on the doorstep like an unwanted parcel in the middle of the night. A rather cold night, from what I understand. Professor Dumbledore didn't even have the courtesy to knock on the door and give Petunia the news of her sister's death in person but instead just let her find out from a note.

"Sirius, unfortunately, was so conditioned to follow Professor Dumbledore's orders that he didn't object and meekly handed Harry over. Instead of insisting on taking care of Harry as was his right as Harry's godfather, instead of considering that he might be wanted for betraying the Potters to Riddle and therefore handing himself into the Department of Law Enforcement with a demand that he be interviewed under Veritaserum to prove his innocence, in his usual impetuous and unthinking manner, Sirius immediately went after Peter. Pettigrew was prepared for this, and well, Lady Hogwarts, please could you show their confrontation?"

After viewing this memory, Hermione continued. "Sirius was mad with grief and blamed himself for James and Lily's deaths, because it had been his idea to change the Secret Keeper. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have occurred to any of the geniuses involved to leave proof of who the _real_ Secret Keeper was in case something went wrong. Thanks to the successful deception, everyone _knew_ that Sirius was the Secret Keeper and so because everyone _knew_ it, he was sentenced without a trial to life in Azkaban.

"As Riddle had now been declared dead, it was deemed safe for Frank and Alice to come out of hiding. However, Riddle's Death Eaters were frantically trying to find out what had happened to their Master. Knowing that Riddle intended to visit the Longbottoms after the Potters (I presume he intended to try and torture Madam Longbottom into giving up the secret of Frank and Alice's location) but not knowing why Riddle had targeted the Potters and the Longbottoms, four of his most rabidly fanatical followers decided to pay Frank and Alice a visit. Neville escaped unharmed but Frank and Alice were Crucioed into insanity. They spent the rest of their lives in the Janus Thickey Ward of St Mungo's. Madam Longbottom used to take Neville to visit them regularly but they didn't know who he was. The four Death Eaters…" Here she looked apologetically at Andromeda Tonks, "Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bellatrix Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Junior, were captured and were also sentenced to Azkaban for life. You'll note that they who had committed countless atrocities were all given a trial, unlike Sirius. Even Bellatrix, who was the most infamous and evil of Riddle's followers, was given a trial."

"Why? Why was Harry taken to Petunia?" hiccupped Lily.

"Apart from the fact that Sirius was in Azkaban and Frank and Alice were incapacitated?" Hermione asked drily. "Harry became known as _The Boy Who Lived_. Harry survived the killing curse although no one knew how, and in surviving, he destroyed Riddle. At least that's how the general populace perceived it. What they failed to consider was that in actual fact Riddle's defeat was your doing, Lily. You sacrificed yourself for your son and in so doing placed ancient protections upon Harry, presumably with the assistance of some kind of ritual that you had undergone in advance. After all, I'm sure you weren't the only mother to beg Riddle or his Death Eaters to take them instead of their children. That's what mothers do! When Riddle tried to kill Harry, the protections activated and the Killing Curse rebounded onto Riddle. The only visible remnants of him were his robes and his wand, which I believe Peter took when he departed your home in Godric's Hollow. To all intents and purposes, it appeared that Riddle had been completely destroyed."

"_Appeared_ as though he had been completely destroyed?" asked Madam Bones shrewdly.

Hermione nodded but did not go into details. Amelia perceptively let the subject drop but asked another question. "I notice you keep calling him Riddle, not Voldemort?"

"Over time, the wizarding world will become terrified even of saying the name Voldemort. Professor Dumbledore used to say that fear of a name causes fear of the thing itself and that we should therefore not refrain from using his name, but there were very few people who dared speak it, all of whom opposed him. Riddle knew that and later placed a taboo on it, using it to try and catch those few who were willing to stand up to him. I'm not scared of the name itself but I am wary of the consequences of breaking the taboo. Harry had followed the Headmaster's lead in using Voldemort's name and he was so conditioned to using Voldemort's name that he accidentally used it one day after the taboo had come into effect. The results of breaking the taboo weren't something I'd care to go through again. I don't want to get into the habit of using the name Voldemort but I don't mind using the name he despises instead," she explained.

Hermione looked at Dumbledore who nodded in acknowledgement of the message she was conveying and then continued her story. "Harry was raised by Petunia and Vernon Dursley. He was neither wanted in their home nor was he treated well. Harry wasn't abused physically—I don't believe they ever actually hit him and he certainly wasn't timid and cowed, the way abused children usually are—but he was barely fed and he was never given new clothes, only tattered cast-offs from his cousin who was the size of a baby whale; nor was he given books, toys or anything else a child should receive. Harry was actually kept in a cupboard until he received his Hogwarts letter and he was treated like a house elf, doing all the housework, while their son, Dudley, did no chores whatsoever.

"Seeing that Harry's Hogarts letter was addressed to _Harry Potter, The Cupboard Under the Stairs_, Petunia and Vernon panicked, thinking they were being watched by wizards and moved Harry into Dudley's second bedroom, which was essentially a junk room for Dudley's broken and discarded toys. Harry had a broken bed and a tiny wardrobe. That was it. He had no friends in primary school because Dudley wouldn't let anyone befriend him. Dudley used to go 'Harry Hunting' with his friends and would beat him up if they caught him. Dudley also did everything he could to get Harry in trouble with Vernon and Petunia and at school, so that Harry would be punished. That usually meant being locked in his cupboard for long periods of time, with bread and water once a day if he was lucky.

"Ironically, the Dursleys didn't need to worry that they were being watched by wizards, since no one ever bothered to check on Harry and make sure he was all right in the entire time he lived with them. I believe Professor Dumbledore arranged for a Squib to live nearby and keep an eye on him but either she didn't know what was happening, or she didn't think it was important to tell Professor Dumbledore about the way Harry was being treated, or else Professor Dumbledore chose to disregard the information in favour of the magical protections awarded Harry by living there. Harry may not have been protected from his relatives but Lily's sacrifice enabled Professor Dumbledore to activate blood wards to protect Harry as long as he lived with Lily's blood. Regular inspections, such as are undertaken in the Muggle world, would have gone a long way to making Harry's life better, Professor," she said sternly.

"Harry was brought up ignorant of magic and of the fact that he was a hero in the wizarding world. He entered Hogwarts completely unprepared. It didn't help that he didn't receive a personal visit from Professor McGonagall, like Muggleborns usually receive; I know Harry wasn't Muggleborn but he was most certainly Muggle-raised and he would have benefitted enormously from that visit.

"Neville, in the meantime, was raised by his grandmother. Unfortunately, the knowledge of what had been done to his parents and the weight of the expectations laid upon him to be like them, made him quite timid and shy. He was rather unconfident and showed little signs of magic as a child growing up. Being half drowned and then thrown out an upper storey window by his Uncle Algie to see if he would bounce wasn't exactly designed to make him any happier about magic than seeing his parents' insanity had," Hermione commented dryly. "When Neville got to Hogwarts, his lack of confidence was made worse by Madam Longbottom's determination that he should use his father's wand to honour Frank. Unfortunately, the wand wasn't suited to Neville at all and so he rather struggled with magic during his early Hogwarts years and, consequently, his self-confidence problem worsened. I wonder if Alice's wand might have suited him better," she mused. "It wasn't until his fifth year that Neville finally began to come into his own."

Hermione took another drink before beginning to talk about her school years in detail. "As I said, Harry, Ron, Neville and I were all sorted into Gryffindor. I didn't fit in much at first. I was commonly described as the brightest witch since Lily Evans Potter. I was also a bit bossy and as our Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin House, Severus Snape, described me, an insufferable know-it-all."

Hermione smiled impishly at him as he registered his shock at her words. "You were the youngest Potions Master to qualify in centuries," she told him. "You didn't particularly like teaching—in fact, I rather think you hated it!—but you were caught between two Masters and you had no choice in the matter. Riddle wanted you in Hogwarts to keep an eye on Professor Dumbledore, while Professor Dumbledore, when you changed sides, had bound you with Unbreakable Vows, which meant you couldn't leave until he freed you. You were sworn to work to the defeat of Riddle and to protect Harry. That meant the best place for you was at Hogwarts, partly so you could easily report back to Professor Dumbledore on Death Eater activities, partly so you could give Riddle selective information about Professor Dumbledore and partly so you could be here for Harry. You did indeed do everything you could to protect him but Harry never realised. It was more than your life was worth to let anyone realise you were protecting _The Boy Who Lived_. You had to be seen to be advancing the Pureblood agenda and you were horrendously biased towards your House. All Heads of House are to some extent but you deducted points from everyone else, especially Gryffindors, pretty much just for breathing, and gave points to Slytherin for the same reason. You had to do that, though, as your House was full of junior Death Eaters, all reporting back home on everything that happened in Hogwarts.

"Once we started Hogwarts, something significant, and usually dangerous, happened to Harry at the end of every school year and on most Halloweens. Ron and I weren't always involved but, more often than not, we were. Unfortunately, despite what most people wanted to believe, Riddle wasn't dead or destroyed and once Harry arrived in Hogwarts, Riddle began to resurface. In our first year, Professor Dumbledore, in his infinite wisdom…"

"Show some respect, Miss Pevensie!" snapped Professor McGonagall.

Hermione ignored her. "In his infinite wisdom, decided to use the Philosopher's Stone as bait for Riddle, placing it in Hogwarts. In a school, of all places! The Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Quirinus Quirrell, was possessed by Riddle's spirit at that point, although none of the staff seemed to notice this, not even the Headmaster, despite the fact that they all knew him quite well as he had previously been the Muggle Studies Professor. Riddle was determined to get the Stone in order to try and regain a corporeal body. On Halloween, Quirrell let a troll into the school. I wasn't at the Feast as I was in the bathroom, crying and considering asking to be withdrawn from Hogwarts. I hadn't made any friends yet and I was miserable. That culminated earlier in the day with Ron making a nasty comment about me and that was the final straw. The students were all sent back to their House common rooms—even Slytherin, despite the fact that the troll was supposedly in the dungeons!—but Harry realised I didn't know about the troll and he and Ron came looking for me. Lady Hogwarts, could you show this incident, please? From when Professor Quirrell entered the Great Hall that night, and in Harry's perspective?"

Again, Lady Hogwarts displayed the memory and at the end of it everyone was in shock. Molly and Lily were crying at the sight of their yet to be born sons in such danger and Professor McGonagall was looking horrified at how close to death the young girl in her charge had been. "You were all extremely lucky. Those boys should have told a Professor instead of going after you themselves," she said severely.

"That's probably true, Professor, but it simply didn't occur to Harry because he'd never in his life been able to go to an adult for help before entering Hogwarts. Harry had essentially been on his own since he was fifteen months old. Ron, perhaps, should have known better but he was a bit heedless back then."

"Where was Remus during Harry's childhood?" James asked suddenly.

"Remus was overcome with grief at the loss of three of his friends at the hands of another and spent the next several years wallowing in misery. Professor Dumbledore assured everyone that Harry was safe and cared for, and he kept Harry's exact location secret from the wizarding world. Remus thought that Harry was growing up with a loving family and didn't believe that as a werewolf he would be given custody anyway, so he agreed not to be a part of Harry's life when Professor Dumbledore requested it. Remus trusted Professor Dumbledore to do what was best for Harry. In truth, Professor Dumbledore wasn't entirely wrong, as Harry may well have grown up to be a spoilt brat otherwise, and the blood wards engendered by his living with Lily's blood certainly did give him some degree of protection, but it's a shame that the Dursleys weren't monitored."

"Why couldn't we hear your name properly in that memory?" asked Alice curiously.

Lady Hogwarts explained. "Miss Pevensie wants to protect her younger self, therefore, she undertook a ritual to change her name and date of birth magically, thereby separating her from her younger self. As the name used in these memories is no longer hers, it cannot be heard and understood."

"So you're not really a Pevensie?" asked Professor Dumbledore with a frown.

"Actually, I really am a Pevensie. My Squib grandmother was born a Pevensie. I'm the last remaining adult member of the family with magic, although my grandmother and mother, both Squibs, are still alive in this time. When I changed my name, I took my grandmother's birth name of Pevensie.

"Back to the story, sir. The Philosopher's Stone was hidden in a room on the third floor, with protections which were tailor-made for Harry, Ron, Neville and myself to get through, although Neville didn't actually join us on that particular adventure. I believe they were meant to be a test for us, but honestly, sir! Protections on an item Riddle would happily kill for, that first years can pass? Really?

"We didn't actually know about the Stone until later in the year, although Professor Dumbledore did mention in the Welcome Feast that the corridor was out of bounds. When the troll was let into the castle, Professor Snape went to check on the stone and was bitten by Hagrid's pet Cerberus, Fluffy, which was the first protection. Harry saw Mr Filch helping the injured Professor Snape and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion that Professor Snape was trying to steal whatever was hidden there. We already knew about Fluffy because Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy and his wife, Narcissa Black, and the arrogant, entitled, spoiled brat that Harry fortunately didn't become, had tricked Harry into being out after curfew one night, and when we were running away from being caught by Mr Filch, we accidentally encountered Fluffy.

"During the course of that year, there were a number of other incidents. Harry was the youngest Seeker in a hundred years. Even I think he's a remarkable Seeker and I have no interest in Quidditch whatsoever. During his first match, his broom was cursed. Ron and I noticed the curse and we saw Professor Snape staring at it and chanting something. We didn't realise that Professor Snape was chanting the counter-curse but assumed that he was chanting the actual curse. You really did act like an obvious villain," she said apologetically to the younger Snape. "It was a perfect cover for your real allegiance. I sneaked along the stands and set fire to your robes. You were the wrong victim but the real culprit—Quirrell, of course—was knocked over during the excitement and the curse ended. Harry caught the snitch, by the way, if anyone's interested. He practically swallowed it, but he caught it.

"Later, Hagrid was conveniently given the opportunity to buy the one thing he'd always wanted by a strange bloke in the pub. Namely, a dragon's egg. Hagrid ended up telling the stranger all about Fluffy without realising he was being carefully milked for information. After Norbet, or rather Norberta as it later turned out, was born, Harry, Ron and I persuaded Hagrid to give up his pet baby dragon and we contacted Charlie Weasley, who was working as a dragon tamer at a reserve in Romania. Charlie arranged for some friends to collect the baby dragon surreptitiously and, again, it involved being out after curfew.

"Draco Malfoy managed to find out what was happening and arranged for myself and Harry to get caught—Ron wasn't with us as he was in the infirmary suffering from an infection due to bite from Norberta. As we couldn't tell Professor McGonagall why we were on top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight without getting Hagrid into serious trouble, we all ended up with detention, together with Neville who had tried to come and warn us. Hagrid felt bad about it and requested that he supervise our detention himself. It took place in the Forbidden Forest, of all places. The Forbidden Forest is forbidden for a reason and no one questioned the sanity of four first years having detention at night in there, supervised only by a man who wasn't allowed to do magic," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Something had been killing unicorns and Hagrid wanted to investigate. He divided us into pairs, taking one pair with him and sending the other paor off with his dog, Fang. I like Hagrid very much but he has no concept of danger and that detention was completely inappropriate. Something seriously dangerous was in the Forbidden Forest and he had a bunch of first years who barely knew any magic help him investigate. Not only that, but he sent two of them off on their own!

"During the detention, Draco ran off in fright, leaving Harry alone. Harry saw a mysterious shade drinking unicorn's blood, with a person he couldn't identify as they were hidden under a cloak and hood, addressing it as Master. He didn't realise it was Quirrell, since Quirrell always stuttered badly when teaching and this person didn't stutter at all. It was extremely dangerous and had Harry been seen and captured, he would have been killed on the spot. I have to say, Headmaster, that much as I respect you and your staff, the negligence and lack of concern for pupils' safety in this school is criminal."

Professor Dumbledore looked as though he was about to challenge Hermione's assertion but wisely decided to remain silent. Hermione was holding her tongue at present and not giving her full and unvarnished opinion of the dangers she and her friends had experienced during their time at Hogwarts, however, she was not certain how restrained she would be if the Headmaster tried to deny culpability in face of the memories she was showing, even though it was the older Dumbledore who had actually been responsible and not the man sitting opposite her now.

"During the Christmas holidays, Professor Dumbledore arranged for Harry to find the Mirror of Erised, which he later used as one of the protections on the Stone. Hagrid also kept dropping pieces of information accidentally, which just made us ever more curious. Eventually we managed to piece it all together and work out what was being hidden in that corridor. We also suspected that Professor Snape was going to steal it and when Professor Dumbledore was summoned to the Ministry one evening towards the end of the year, we realised that would be the perfect opportunity for anyone who wanted to steal the stone. We went to Professor McGonagall but we were only in first year and she wasn't yet familiar with the phenomenon of our always having a dangerous escapade at the end of the school year. Professor McGonagall therefore dismissed our concerns, especially as we were blaming Professor Snape, not realising that we were accusing the wrong person. Had this happened a couple of years later, she would probably have taken more notice of us.

"My Lady Hogwarts, please would you show everyone Harry's detention in the Forbidden Forest and then the night we went after the Philospher's Stone? Please begin the incident with the Stone from our encounter with Neville in the common room." Looking at Frank, Alice and Augusta, Hermione explained, "Neville chose not to accompany us for valid reasons and he showed a lot of courage in standing up to us."

"Of course, child," Lady Hogwarts agreed.

At the end of these two memories, everyone was once again horrified. Professor McGonagall had been bristling every time Hermione criticised the actions of Professor Dumbledore or his staff but seeing those memories silenced her and she had to admit to herself that Hermione made good points about the dangers.

"What... what was that at the end?" James asked in consternation.

"As I said, Professor Quirrell had been possessed by the spirit of Riddle. Thanks to the protections Lily had placed on Harry, Riddle couldn't stand Harry's touch. Quirrell was little more than an animated corpse at that point anyway, as there was no way Riddle could or would leave his body without killing him in the process, and when you added the complication of Lily's protection working against him, his weakened body couldn't handle it and burned up, allowing the spirit to escape once again. Harry later asked Professor Dumbledore for an explanation but the Headmaster declined to give one at that time.

"Sir, I know that you are trying to win this war and to do the best thing for us all, but you should know that your propensity for not sharing important information made things much worse. The war could have been over much sooner and many of those who died might not have done so if only you had been more open with people, especially Harry. Your intentions were good but you really must remember that you are only human and you're not infallible," she told him sternly.

Professor Dumbledore looked at her abashedly, the twinkle gone from his eyes, and nodded once in acknowledgement.

.o.O.o.

¹ It's unclear if Charlus and Dorea Potter are James Potter's parents. In this story, I'm subscribing to the theory that they are.

² Most of the Death Eaters are either older than Snape and the Marauders or we don't know their ages. Regulus is a year younger than Snape and the Marauders and from the information that we do have, we can extrapolate that Barty Crouch Jr is probably a year younger than Regulus, though we don't know that for sure. In this story Peter is already marked and Barty Crouch Jr is in the same year as Regulus. In canon, Snape hung around with Mulciber and Avery when in school, so I'm putting them in his year and all other Death Eaters (apart from Pettigrew, Snape, Regulus, Barty Crouch Jr, Avery and Mulciber) have either finished school or didn't attend Hogwarts in the first place—Dolohov and Karkaroff quite possibly attended Durmstrang, for example. I've placed Barty Jr in sixth year because that's the year the students turn seventeen and come of age, to allow him to take the Dark Mark before Hermione's plans come to fruition.

³ In canon, Severus called Lily a Mudblood, thus ending their friendship, in fifth year and I believe the event in the Shrieking Shack took place later, in sixth or seventh year, but this is AU, so I'm moving both incidents to seventh year.

⁴ _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 37_


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

Before beginning the story of her second year at Hogwarts, Hermione asked for a small break and headed back to the refreshment table, where she helped herself to a small plate of fruit and some more juice. Everyone who had been listening to her story in ever increasing horror took the opportunity to stretch their legs as well. When Hermione turned away from the table, she noticed Severus and Regulus still sitting huddled in a corner, uncertain of their welcome, and watched as Charlus and Dorea Potter headed over to them.

"Mr Snape, I would like to apologise for the behaviour of my son and his friends. Rest assured that this will _not_ be continuing and they _will_ apologise to you," said Charlus firmly. Severus, not used to such courteous treatment, looked supremely uncomfortable, while Sirius and James both looked appalled. Ignoring his brother, Regulus helped his socially awkward friend by politely conversing with the senior Potters and drawing Severus into the conversation as well.

Hermione smiled and headed back to her seat, only to be stopped on the way by Molly and Arthur.

"Twins, huh?" the older woman asked.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, Mrs Weasley. I was closest to Ron and Ginny, but Fred and George were also good friends. The twins are infuriating, exasperating, brilliant and very loyal. I didn't know Bill, Charlie or Percy quite as well, though Bill did become something of an older brother to me during the war. He was married to a Frenchwoman and after the war, they moved to France to be near her family. You went with them and the twins were planning to join you all in France. Bill tried to get me to come with you but I wasn't ready to move on yet. You and Mr Weasley treated Harry and myself like part of the family, you know. I was very close to my parents but you were my wizarding family. I'm sorry that I'm telling you all about your children instead of letting you get to know them for yourself, but because Harry and I were so close to your family, I can't filter you all out of the story."

"That's all right, dear," Molly smiled at her. "And please call us Molly and Arthur. We're not meeting you as a young child coming off the Hogwarts Express; you're a grown woman. If you'd ever like to come and visit the Burrow, you'd be very welcome. I know it won't be the same but you could at least see the children grow up."

"Thank you, Molly. I'd like that very much," Hermione whispered, her eyes watering. "And please call me Maia."

Molly gave her a smile and squeezed her arm, then went over to chat to Andromeda Tonks, whose daughter, Nymphadora, would be in the same school year as Molly's second son, Charlie.

Hermione sat down in her seat again and tried to compose herself. Talking to Molly had reminded her of the loss of Harry, Ron and Ginny. Even watching them grow up would not be the same, although she hoped her younger self would become friends with them again.

Seeing Hermione sitting down, everyone else resumed their seats and they all looked at her expectantly. Hermione took a deep breath.

"None of the staff at school seemed to have noticed how underfed Harry was when he first arrived at school and how shabby his clothes were—either that or they didn't care enough to ask—and he was sent back to the Dursleys for the summer holidays. Apparently, even him asking directly if he could stay at school over the summer wasn't enough to raise concerns either," Hermione said sarcastically.

"At first, Harry didn't mind too much. He said that the Dursleys didn't know he wasn't allowed to do magic out of school, although I'm not sure how that's the case, given that Petunia must have known that Lily wasn't permitted either." Hermione looked over at Lily Evans, who blushed furiously under the scrutiny of most of the people in the room.

"I might have done some magic to annoy Petunia," the red headed girl admitted reluctantly. "I received a few warning letters about it, but nothing serious."

Hermione snorted. "You got off lightly!" she exclaimed.

"Anyway," she continued, looking round, "the Dursleys were wary of him because of that, not that they treated him any better, and all was going fairly well until he was visited by a slightly odd house elf. Lady Hogwarts, if you would?"

Lady Hogwards nodded and a vision of Harry's first encounter with Dobby was displayed, from the little house elf appearing in Harry's bedroom, through him telling Harry that he should not return to Hogwarts and that he had been intercepting all Harry's mail, and then, finally, Dobby levitating and dropping a pudding.

"Harry received a warning letter for that, even though it was house elf magic and not wizard's magic. Doesn't the Ministry ever bother checking these things?" she asked, looking at Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody in exasperation.

"This alerted the Dursleys to the fact that Harry couldn't do magic outside school and they locked him up in his room. They installed bars on the windows of his room and heavy duty locks on his bedroom door. They let him go the bathroom once a day and fed him one can—that's about a bowl's worth—of cold soup a day, which he shared with his pet owl, Hedwig, who was locked inside her cage. Eventually, however, Harry was rescued. My Lady, if you would?"

With a smile, Lady Hogwarts displayed Ron, Fred and George's rescue of Harry. Hermione grinned mischievously and addressed Molly Weasley. "While you were very happy to welcome Harry to the Burrow, you were less impressed by his method of arrival and made sure your sons were well aware of it. However, you and Arthur had also been worried about Harry because he hadn't been answering any letters and had been planning to investigate; the boys only pre-empted you by a few days."

"Well done, those boys!" exclaimed one of the Prewett twins—Hermoine was not sure which.

"We'll have to teach them all we know about pranking and then they'll truly be worthy successors to our name," said the other. Molly hit him on the arm. Hard.

"Oh, believe me, they need no help in that area!" snorted Hermione.

"Anyway, Harry made a point of getting Fred and George to teach him how to pick locks after that, which made things slightly easier during subsequent holidays. Harry stayed at the Burrow for the rest of that summer holiday and here's what happened when you all went to Diagon Alley to get the children's school things. My Lady, please would you start this memory from just before Harry enters the floo? It was his first time flooing," she explained.

Lady Hogwarts showed Harry ending up in Borgin & Burkes by mistake, the conversation between Lucius Malfoy and the proprietor, the visit to Flourish & Blotts, where Harry was accosted by Gilderoy Lockhart, and the fight between Lucius and Arthur.

Molly was looking daggers at Arthur, so Hermione hastened to explain. "That fight was planned by Lucius Malfoy, who had just slipped a Dark artefcat into Ginny's cauldron. Malfoy wanted to divert attention away from his actions, so that all you would remember looking back would be the fight and not him pawing through her school books. The fop who accosted Harry was one Gilderoy Lockhart, a very average wizard who was only competent with the Obliviate and grooming charms. Lockhart roamed the world looking for witches and wizards who had done amazing things against dark creatures, heard their stories, Obliviated them, and then wrote ridiculous books claiming it was all his own doing. It's a shame he didn't just write his stories as fiction, as he would no doubt have been quite successful and possibly even vaguely tolerable if he had, but he was too badly in need of adoration for that; his ego needed people to believe it was all his own doing, which they did, despite the fact that the books were complete nonsense. Lockhart was our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that year and, unsurprisingly, he was utterly useless. If I remember rightly, Lockhart claimed to have defeated all those dark creatures through a combination of good looks, dazzling personality and a load of mumbo-jumbo claptrap. I'm not sure who hated him more, the professors or the students. Professor Snape absolutely despised the man."

Hermione addressed Severus Snape again. "You applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position every year but were turned down. I'm not sure why but I think it may have been a combination of factors. One reason may have been that the curse against the position meant you would have only lasted one year and then you quite likely wouldn't have been able to stay at Hogwarts afterwards—none of our other Defence Professors were able to—and both Riddle and Professort Dumbledore needed you to be at Hogwarts. The other reason is quite possibly that Professor Dumbledore was waiting until we desperately needed to learn from you, until you could be most useful in that position. However, it was undoubtedly infuriating for you to watch inept, incompetent fools like Lockhart year after year. But I'm digressing, so back to the story. My Lady, please could you show everyone what happened when Harry and Ron tried to get onto Platform 9¾ that year?"

Lady Hogwarts projected the image of Harry and Ron finding out that the entrance to the platform was blocked and Hermione asked her to stop as the two boys started debating what to do next. "Both being somewhat heedless and impetuous, it didn't occur to either of them to send Harry's owl for help, or to wait for Molly and Arthur by the car—although, in their defence, I do believe the boys assumed the problem would be two-way and that if they couldn't get in, then Molly and Arthur might have a problem exiting the platform—and they decided to take the car and follow the train, since Arthur had installed invisibility and flying features in it. Neither of them had ever driven a car before but that didn't stop them. They were actually all right until they tried to land in the grounds of Hogwarts and crashed into the Whomping Willow. The car itself, having already been altered magically, absorbed some of the ambient magic in the atmosphere at Hogwarts and summarily ejected the two boys and their belongings, before tearing off into the Forbidden Forest where it lived a semi-sentient life after that. The Howler you sent the following morning was most impressive, Molly."

At that, everyone laughed, grateful for a light-hearted moment and Hermione grinned in appreciation before continuing. "Unfortunately, Ron's wand broke in the crash. He was using Charlie's old wand. I don't want to embarrass you, Molly and Arthur, but you never had much money. You had seven children to raise and educate and you managed to do so on a single salary without denying them anything they needed. Expensive treats were out but their needs were all met. Your children were all aware that there was limited money available for extras, although in general it didn't bother them because they all knew how much they were loved. However, due to that, Ron didn't write home to explain that his wand was broken and ask for a new one; instead he _Spellotaped_ it together and continued using it. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly reliable.

"During our first week back, Draco Malfoy called me a Mudblood and when Ron tried to hex Draco, the spell backfired. That was the first time I'd heard the term but it certainly wasn't the last. Draco was the Slytherin Prince and they all followed his lead; after that, I was routinely called a Mudblood by them. I think it bothered Ron more than me though, because he'd grown up knowing it was a foul term, but it didn't really have any more impact on me than any other unpleasant epithet would have done, and probably less than some of the Muggle insults I had grown up hearing," she said thoughtfully, as Lily sniffed disdainfully. Hermione mentally rolled her eyes at the red-headed witch and carried on talking.

"Anyway, Harry and Ron both had detention for their escapade with the car and during that detention, Harry heard for the first time a sinister voice that no one else could hear. No, he wasn't mad; there was a reason why he was the only one who could hear it. Harry continued to hear this voice a number of times throughout the year, usually talking about killing Mudbloods, but he didn't tell anyone about it other than Ron or myself. As Ron put it: _Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world¹_. There were a number of strange incidents during the year, starting on Halloween, with students being attacked and petrified. Mysterious messages were found at each incident, talking about the Chamber of Secrets having been opened and threatening the enemies of Slytherin. Rumours started circulating about the Heir of Slytherin having returned and when it came out that Harry was a Parselmouth, it was automatically assumed he was the Heir and most of the school turned against him, especially as Harry somehow seemed to end up in the vicinity of each attack just after it happened."

"My son is a Parselmouth?" whispered James, aghast.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Sort of. That will be explained towards the end of my story."

"The staff did nothing to quash the rumours or to help Harry. I'm not sure they even tried to find out where the Chamber was, how it had been opened or what the monster inside it was. After all, there were two very simple things they could have done but didn't: one was to invite Auror Moody to check out the school. By that time, he had lost an eye when fighting dark wizards and he had replaced it with a magical eye that could see through everything—walls, invisibility cloaks, he could even see what was happening behind him! He could have been asked to look for a hidden chamber, or a passage that might have led to one. The other thing was that they could simply have asked Moaning Myrtle."

"That miserable ghost who haunts the girls' second floor bathrooms? Why on earth would she be of any use?" asked Lily incredulously.

"Perhaps because, as I explained earlier, she was the last victim of the monster?" suggested Hermione sarcastically. "Professor Dumbledore was the Transfiguration teacher last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened and he knew that Myrtle had been killed by Slytherin's monster. He also knew that Hagrid had been framed for it by the real culprit, and yet it didn't seem to have occurred to anyone simply to ask Myrtle how she died. Instead, when the attacks seemed to end, everyone was happy just to forget all about it until the Chamber of Secrets was opened again in my time."

Hermione noticed Professor Dumbledore again looking shamefaced at that comment and continued. "Surely that should have been one of the first things you did when her ghost appeared, so that the monster could have been dealt with and Hagrid's name cleared? After all, there was no reason to assume the Chamber of Secrets would never be opened again. So, with no evidence that the school was actually taking the problem seriously, Harry, Ron and I ended up investigating again. We happened to discover an old diary that someone had tried to flush down the toilet, only to discover it was protected in some way. It wasn't water damaged but the pages were blank, so we couldn't understand why anyone would throw away a simple, Muggle notebook. When we tried writing in it, though, the writing was absorbed into the diary and it responded to us. It was the diary that told us the story of what had happened the last time the Chamber had been opened—or rather, what the diary wanted us to know about what had happened, which wasn't entirely the same thing."

"You trusted something whose brain you couldn't see?" Arthur Weasley asked, frowing in disapproval.

"Harry and I weren't raised in the wizarding world, Arthur. We didn't know any better and it didn't occur to Ron that we didn't know, so as we had no problem writing in the diary, he trusted our judgement and didn't object either. That wasn't all we did to investigate, though. We… err, we also decided to brew Polyjuice and use it to question Draco Malfoy," Hemione admitted, blushing.

"You brewed Polyjuice in your second year?" Severus Snape asked in awe.

"Yes. We—well, I—brewed it in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, as no one ever goes in there. Professor Lockhart gave me a pass to the Restricted Section so I could get the instructions, although he didn't actually realise what he was doing," Hermione explained.

"And what about the ingredients that a schoolchild wouldn't have access to?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

Hermione blushed even harder. "We stole them from Professor Snape's stores," she admitted. "The potion came out perfectly, though. We put a sleeping draught into a couple of cauldron cakes and left them for Draco's two best friends—Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle—to find. As expected, they ate them and when they fell asleep, Harry and Ron dragged them into a cupboard, took their robes and a hair from each of them and disguised themselves as Crabbe and Goyle. They then went to speak to Draco, only to discover that Draco had no more idea what was happening than anyone else, although he was certainly enjoying it more than anyone else!"

"Why didn't you take the Polyjuice? Didn't you trust your own brewing?" asked Ted Tonks curiously.

By this time, Hermione's blush could have warmed the entire room. "I did, but…" she sighed. "I took a hair from the robes of one of the Slytherin girls but didn't realise it was a cat hair. Polyjuice isn't meant to be used for animal transfiguration and I spent the next several weeks after taking the Polyjuice in the infirmary as a cat-girl, while Madam Pomfrey cured me. The potion was perfect, it was the hair that was wrong."

James, Sirius and the Prewett twins all burst out laughing, while several others around the room stifled their laughter. Even Severus Snape, who had looked outraged when Hermione admitted to stealing from his stores, now looked amused.

"I was very fortunate Hogwarts had such a skilled Medi-witch in Madam Pomfrey and such a talented Potions Master in Professor Snape, otherwise I'm not sure the damage could have been reversed," she admittedly sheepishly. "Anyway, the Ministry felt that it had to be seen to be doing something and so they arrested Hagrid and sent him to Azkaban. That didn't stop the attacks but it didn't seem to occur to Minister Fudge that if the attacks were still occurring, then perhaps Hagrid wasn't the culprit. But then, Cornelius Fudge always did rely on Lucius Malfoy's gold to do his thinking for him and Malfoy wanted Professor Dumbledore out of Hogwarts, which he eventually managed to achieve.

"I was one of the last students to be petrified before Hagrid was arrested and by then I had worked out what the monster was. I put the clues together: a beast that petrifies, it belonged to Salazar Slytherin and Harry could hear a voice in the walls that no one else could. I was making my way back from the library with confirmation of my suspicion when I was petrified. We—all of the victims—were lucky that we weren't killed. It was only by chance that none of us looked the monster directly in the eyes. Hagrid managed to give a clue to Harry and Ron before he was taken away, namely to 'follow the spiders' and they went into the Forbidden Forest doing just that."

Hermione shook her head in fond exasperation. "Hagrid is fascinated by magical creatures and thinks the dangerous ones are all just 'misunderstood.' Because he personally isn't at risk from most of them, he simply doesn't comprehend the danger to the rest of us. As a student, Hagrid had a pet acromantula. It was only a baby at that point but he let it out into the forest and found a mate for it, and so the colony grew. Aragog, Hagrid's first acromantula, has a fondness for him and so Hagrid is safe from the colony but no one else is. My Lady, if you would?"

Lady Hogwarts displayed Harry and Ron's encounter with the acromantula and their rescue by Arthur Weasley's car. At the end of that scene, most of the people watching were either fuming or in tears.

"I think we're going to want a word about this acromantula colony, Albus," said Amelia Bones through gritted teeth.

"I concur," declared Charlus Potter coldy.

"Now, Amelia, Charlus; there's nothing wrong with the colony. It's an added defence for the school and, besides, the children shouldn't have been in the Forbidden Forest," said Albus patronisingly.

"And what about when the colony grows to such an extent that the acromantula start venturing _out_ of the forest in search of food?" demanded Augusta irately.

"Madam Longbottom, Madam Bones, Mr Potter, while I agree with you all, that's not the most pressing issue right now," said Hermione. "The acromantula had not yet encroached that far when I attended Hogwarts in the nineties. First we need to deal with Riddle and his Death Eaters and then we can deal with the acromantula colony."

"Dealing with Voldmort could take years, young lady," harrumphed Madam Longbottom.

"No, it won't," Hermione assured her. "That's why I was brought back from the future. I have the knowledge to put an end to him."

"Very well; please continue," Madam Longbottom conceded with a slight smile. Hermione got the distinct impression that Augusta Longbottom did not feel that Albus Dumbledore was the infallible, all-wise, all-knowing, heroic examplar that the rest of the wizarding world regarded him as and that Madam Longbottom was, in fact, quite enjoying seeing him get told off by the young chit of a witch that was Hermione.

Hermione nodded at Augusta Longbottom in acknowledgement, with a slightly conspiratorial smile. "Harry and Ron eventually put all the pieces of the puzzle together. When they visited me in the infirmary, they discovered a piece of paper in my hand, which no one else had noticed. It was a text about basilisks and I'd written 'pipes' across it. From that, Harry realised the reason only he could hear the mysterious voice was because it was speaking in Parseltongue—he never could recognise when he was hearing Parseltongue because it just sounded like English to him—and that it was travelling about the school through the pipes. Pipes led him to think of the bathroom and he worked out that the last victim of the basilisk had never left the site of her death. Lady Hogwarts, if you could show what happened from the time Harry and Ron discovered the paper in my hand until after Harry's encounter with Lucius Malfoy? Just the important parts, please."

As requested, Lady Hogwarts showed the boys visiting the petrified Hermione in the infirmary, working out what the monster was, going to tell a teacher but instead hearing the announcement that Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber, the boys challenging Lockhart and forcing him to go with them to rescue Ginny, their conversation with Myrtle, their experiences in the Chamber, Harry's explanation to Professor Dumbledore and the Weasleys afterwards, Lucius Malfoy barging in and Harry realising Lucius was responsible for planting the diary on Ginny, and then finally, Harry tricking Lucius into freeing Dobby and Dobby protecting Harry when Lucius wanted to attack him. It took quite some time to watch all of this and when the final image faded, the entire room was in a shocked silence.

Looking round at her shell-shocked audience, Hermione cleared her throat and said hesitantly, "Perhaps this might be a good time to break for lunch, Professor Dumbledore? It's already quite late."

He nodded silently and then, pulling himself together, called out for his house elf. "Tappy, please could you ask the kitchen elves to serve lunch here to my guests?"

"Yes, Master Headmaster," the elf squeaked. He popped away and a few minutes later, platters of steaming, hot food, and crisp salads appeared on the tables standing at the side of the room.

As everyone went over to help themselves and milled around, talking desultorily, Professor Dumbledore approached Hermione. "Miss Pevensie, I'm curious why you didn't ask for Hagrid to attend this meeting. I'm sure he would like to know he was exonerated."

"Yes, he would love to know," Hermione agreed, "and perhaps we can use these memories to clear his name. However, while Hagrid is a good man, who is very loyal to you and to Hogwarts, he is also constitutionally incapable of keeping a secret and there are things we are discussing that he should not be letting slip after he's had a few drinks down at the Hogs' Head."

"I understand. Well, perhaps as you say, we can clear his name," agreed Dumbledore.

Hermione snorted. "Headmaster, Hagrid is a half giant. I don't think he could have fit into the tunnel entrance in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom even when he was still a teenager, and we know that's the entrance that Tom Riddle used, because that's where he told the basilisk to kill her."

"You make a good point, Miss Pevensie," Albus twinkled in response. "Mr Harry Potter seems like quite an extraordinary young man," he observed.

"Yes," Hermione agreed, tears brimming in her eyes. "He truly was."

"Was?" the elderly wizard queried gently.

Hermione wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and shook her head. Seeming to understand that she was too emotional to discuss Harry further at that moment, Professor Dumbledore changed the subject.

"Err, the basilisk?" he asked.

"I believe it's dormant at the moment," Hermione said, grateful to be discussing dangerous creatures instead of Harry, whose loss she still mourned.

_'There's probably something wrong with me if I prefer talking about dangerous incidents and beasts than my dear Harry,'_ she mused wryly.

Speaking aloud, she continued, "You should probably wait until the holidays to deal with it, when the students aren't around. I imagine we can dismantle the sink hiding the opening to the Chamber, in lieu of finding a Parselmouth to open it for us. I don't think Lady Hogwarts has access to the Chamber of Secrets, or she would have helped you or Headmaster Dippett when it was opened, either when Tom Riddle was still a student here or in my time. The problem will be getting into the inner chamber and, of course, we don't know exactly where the basilisk is and if it can hear a rooster's crow in its nest from the inner chamber. Is there a portrait of Salazar Slytherin who could open the inner chamber for us? Or perhaps we could project the memories of Harry and Tom Riddle to open the chamber and summon the snake? Or Fawkes might be able to transport you and whoever you wish to join you in and out of the chamber?"

"Indeed, Miss Pevensie. You make some good points. I shall have to consider how best to deal with this," Dumbledore said, combing his hand through his long beard thoughtfully. "It might be best to wait for young Mr Potter to be born and ask him to help us when he's older."

Hermione shook her head. "Harry isn't going to be a Parselmouth this time. Not if I have anything to do with it," she declared resolutely. "Oh, I have no problem with the concept of a Parselmouth, Professor, and Harry certainly wasn't evil. However, the means by which he was able to speak Parseltongue is something I intend to prevent happening."

"How can you prevent that, Miss Pevensie?" asked Charlus Potter curiously. He and his wife were standing beside Albus, listening to the conversation.

"Harry didn't gain that ability naturally, Mr Potter. I'll explain it all later in the story," Hermione said sadly.

"Miss Pevensie, what punishment did Lucius Malfoy receive for planting that diary on young Miss Weasley?" asked Amelia Bones, who had just come up to them.

"Nothing. He was removed from the Board of Governors of Hogwarts, but that was it. You have to understand, Madam Bones, that Lucius Malfoy was one of a group of marked Death Eaters who avoided Azkaban after the downfall of the Dark Lord by claiming they were under the Imperius Curse. Some gold in the right pockets and they were all pardoned. After that, Malfoy soon had the next Minister in his pocket as well, and Cornelius Fudge basically let Malfoy—or his gold—do all his thinking for him. Minister Fudge therefore thought Lucius Malfoy was a fine and upstanding member of our society."

Hermione smothered a snort of laughter at the look of disgust and scorn on Amelia's face. "And it only gets worse, Madam Bones."

With that cheery thought, Hermione excused herself and returned to her seat. Soon everyone was sitting down with plates of food in front of them. Seeing them looking at her expectantly, Hermione decided to carry on the story as they ate.

"When we went home that summer, Harry wasn't locked up by the Dursleys again. Instead, even worse, Marge Dursley, Vernon's sister came to stay."

"How could that possibly be worse than being locked up?" demanded Lily, aghast.

"Hmm, now let me see… just like her brother and sister-in-law, she spoiled Dudley rotten while treating Harry like dirt," Hermione said acerbically. _'Honestly, if Vernon and Petunia couldn't stand Harry, why would Lily think that Vernon's sister would be any different?'_ she thought to herself. Hermione was having a hard time reconciling the Lily Evans of reality to the much-vaunted Lily Potter she had heard so much about. Either Lily became less shallow and vain with age or else her death had caused people to forget her flaws and magnify her good points in their minds. James, the only Marauder she had not met in her previous life, was much closer to her pre-conceived expectations.

"Unlike Vernon and Petunia, however, Marge wasn't content if Harry just kept out the way but insisted on him being under her eye all the time so that she could berate and belittle him at every possible opportunity. Marge also had no compunction about physically hurting him. She raised bulldogs who she seemed to have trained to be vicious. One of them attacked and bit Harry when he was about five and no one did anything about it. Harry ended up climbing up a tree to escape from the dog and was trapped there by the dog until after midnight, while the Dursleys just laughed at him. No one called the dog off or treated Harry's bite, even though dogs that attack people are supposed to be put down! Marge also continually insulted and denigrated you and James to Harry's face, despite not actually having known you—at the very most, you would have met briefly at Petunia and Vernon's wedding. My Lady, please could you show what happened on Harry's last night in Privet Drive that summer?" Hermione looked round the room. "Please remember that this was the culmination of a solid week of unrelenting abuse from Miss Dursley."

Lady Hogwarts showed Harry blowing up his aunt like a balloon and leaving Privet Drive, much to the amusement of the Prewett twins and the three Marauders. She also showed Harry catching sight of Padfoot, accidentally calling the Knight Bus and using it to reach London, the explanation from Stan Shunpike about Sirius having escaped from Azkaban and Harry arriving at the Leaky Cauldron and being met there by Minister Fudge.

At the end of the memory, James, Sirius and Remus, who had been laughing at the sight of Marge Dursley blown up like a blimp, all looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Hermione was watching them in anticipation and sure enough they turned to her and asked the question she had been waiting for.

"Err, that dog that startled Harry—wasn't that Sirius?" asked Remus.

"Yes, but Harry didn't know that at the time. It was quite some time until Sirius approached Harry again. Sirius was only in Privet Drive that night because he wanted to catch a glimpse of Harry before he headed north to Hogwarts. As for the reason Sirius escaped from Azkaban… Sirius was surprisingly sane after all these years. He wasn't completely unaffected but he hadn't gone mad from so many years in the proximity of the Dementors. Cornelius Fudge had recently paid a visit to Azkaban and when Sirius asked for his newspaper, Fudge gave it to him. On the front page of the paper was an article about the Weasleys winning a Daily Prophet Prize Draw for seven hundred galleons." Hermione smiled at Arthur and Molly. "You used the money to buy Ron a new wand and to take the family on holiday—you all went to Egypt to visit Bill, who was a Gringotts curse breaker there. The story in the paper had a picture of the entire family, including Ron's pet rat, Scabbers."

"Rat, did you say?" asked Sirius, sitting up with a bang.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Percy had found him in the fields near the Burrow some years previously and had been allowed to keep him as a pet. When he was made a prefect, Percy got an owl and gave Scabbers to Ron."

"Percy was a prefect?" asked Molly with a pleased smile.

"Actually," laughed Hermione. "Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ron were all prefects. Bill and Percy were both Head Boy and Charlie was the Quidditch Captain. I never saw him play as he left Hogwarts just before I started, but apparently Charlie was good enough to play for England, if only he hadn't preferred his dragons."

Molly beamed in delight at hearing how well her older sons had done at Hogwarts, however, Hermione very sensibly moved on before Molly could ask about the yet to be born twins.

"Harry spent the remainder of the holidays on his own at the Leaky Cauldron, although just why the Minister thought this would be safe for him when a man who was supposedly responsible for the deaths of his parents and a number of Muggles was thought to be coming after him, I don't know."

Hermione smiled sadly. "It was also the only time in his life, from the moment that Lily and James were killed, that Harry had any sort of freedom. Even at the Burrow or at school, despite Hogwarts being a refuge for him, there were always expectations on him as _The Boy Who Lived_. This was the only time he ever managed to be just Harry, especially as he wasn't told at this point that it was believed Sirius was after him. This, of course, turned out to be an erroneous assumption, although that I'll come back to that in a bit. The Weasleys, Harry and I all met up at Diagon Alley the day before school started. Harry had already done his school shopping by this time but Ron and I still had to do ours. Ron's rat was looking a bit peaky, so he took him to the Magical Menagerie to buy a tonic, when I went to get a pet. I had thought to buy an owl but, well, you'll see what happened. My Lady?"

Lady Hogwarts showed the incident with Crookshanks attacking the rat and Hermione buying him, much to Ron's disgust.

"May we assume there's a reason why you buying that ugly furball is important?" asked Kingsley Shacklebolt with a grin. Until now, he had been sitting quietly, just observing. Hermione, who had always got on well with Kingsley, grinned back, pleased to see him again.

"He's a half-Kneazle and, like all Kneazles and part-Kneazles, he's very good at detecting when someone or something is suspicious or deceitful. Crooks absolutely hated Scabbers and was after him from the moment he saw him. The night before we went to school, we were all staying at the Leaky Cauldon and Harry overheard a conversation between Mr and Mrs Weasley talking about Sirius supposedly wanting to kill Harry. It had been decided not to tell Harry in case it inspired him to go after Sirius but that really wasn't the best way to deal with Harry." Hermione looked at Professor Dumbledore and spoke severely.

"I know you were only trying to give Harry as much of a childhood as possible, sir, but it was very obvious by now that he was a magnet for trouble and, to be honest, he was safer knowing what was going on than being kept in the dark. Mr Weasley did give him a warning the next day before we boarded the Hogwarts Express but he didn't tell Harry _why_ Sirius was supposedly after him, which turned out to be quite important information. I can't tell you how upset and betrayed Harry felt that he was left to find out by accident instead of being told that Sirius had apparently betrayed the Potters to Riddle. The whole wizarding world knew Harry's story and yet he himself knew nothing of his past, or of his family history and the Potters' place in our society. When this is all over and Riddle has been defeated, then I would like to discuss with you the integration of Muggleborn and Muggle raised students to the wizarding world, Professor; I have a few ideas about that."

Hermione paused to take a drink to wet her throat, which had become dry from all the talking, and to gather her thoughts. "Despite the fact that Sirius had never even been tried for any crime, let alone convicted, Cornelius Fudge issued a Kiss-on-Sight order after Sirius escaped from Azkaban and he insisted on stationing Dementors around the school to 'protect' the students." Everyone could hear the inverted commas Hermione had inserted around the word 'protect' and a few eyebrows were raised.

"The Dementors stopped and boarded the train to search for Sirius. It's fortunate that the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was travelling on the Hogwarts Express that year or all the students would have undoubetdly been Kissed on the way to school, because there weren't any Ministry officials accompanying the Dementors and none of the students knew how to cast a _Patronus_. Professor Dumbledore tried to protest the use of Dementors but Minister Fudge had an unhealthy belief in them as guards and insisted on stationing them at the school gates. As they were technically outside the school, there was nothing Professor Dumbledore could do about it.

"The full moon had been the night of the thirty-first of August, which, I assume, is why Professor Lupin was not yet at Hogwarts and ended up travelling with us on the train." Hermione smiled at Remus when she saw his surprise at her addressing him as Professor. "I'm not sure if Professor Dumbledore offered you the position that year in spite of your friendship with Sirius or because of it, but you were an excellent teacher. Professor Snape was understandably livid at your appointment and spent the year predicting that you were assisting Sirius and would sneak him into the school.

"As I said earlier, Harry had a lot of problems when near a Dementor and he begged Remus to teach him the Patronus Charm. Harry's Boggart was a Dementor, so Remus used one to help teach Harry the charm under simulated conditions, as his Boggart had the same effect on Harry as a real Dementor did."

Here Hermione looked disapproving."You were a good teacher, Remus, but you needed to remember that you were a teacher and no longer a student who was indulged by the Headmaster when you bullied others. Neville Longbottom was terrified of Professor Snape. I'm sorry, sir, but your attitude towards Gryffindors was pretty appalling and you let your grudge against James spill over onto his son. I know that Harry was the personification of everything bad in your life—Lily choosing James over you and your failure to save the Potters—but it wasn't fair of you to take it out on Harry. You weren't exactly fond of Ron, Neville or I either, as the students closest to Harry, not to mention the fact that we were all Gryffindors.

"Neville's Boggart was Professor Snape, Remus, and you had Neville dress the Boggart Snape in woman's clothes, like Madam Longbottom's. The story got around the entire school very, very quickly and of course all the students thought it was hilarious. I rather suspect you would also have brought it up in the staffroom, causing all the staff to laugh at him as well. As soon as Neville told you what he most feared, you should have had someone else do the demonstration with the Boggart instead or suggested a different transformation to deal with it. You could have suggested that Neville picture it changing into something else altogether—a cauldron, perhaps. Certainly, something that wasn't so humiliating for Professor Snape. Of course, apart from Harry, our fears were all childish then—mine was Professor McGonagall telling me that I'd failed my end of year exams!" Everyone laughed. "I dread to think what it would be now, and I'm not particularly keen to find out," she reflected.

"Sirius did actually manage to sneak in twice. He tried to get as far as the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room and dorms during the Halloween Feast but the Fat Lady wouldn't let him pass and he slashed the portrait in frustration. Her portrait was temporarily replaced with that of Sir Cadogan, who kept changing the password every day. One of the students, who didn't have the best memory for the common room password, had got Sir Cadogan to give him the passwords in advance and had written them down. Crookshanks had met Sirius in his Animagus form and had formed a friendship with him. Even more than that, Crookshanks actually helped Sirius and gave the piece of paper with the passwords to Sirius, who sneaked in one night to try and catch the rat, only Ron woke up and screamed blue murder when he saw Sirius, thus waking the entire tower.

"That was a hard year for me," Hermione admitted. "After that, Scabbers disappeared and we all believed Crookshanks had eaten him. Ron didn't speak to me for months because of that. Then, during one of the Gryffindor Quidditch matches, the Dementors invaded the pitch and Harry, who always had an extreme reaction to their presence, fell off his broom, which smashed into the Whomping Willow.

"Next, Harry received a mysterious Christmas present of a new broom, the very best one in existence at the time, and I was worried it might have been from Sirius, trying to hurt Harry by sending him a jinxed broom. Harry was too wrapped up in the fact he'd received a present of a world class broom to care about that—it's the model that most of the international Quidditch teams used the following summer at the World Cup—so I went behind his back to tell Professor McGonagall about it. She confiscated it for tests and Harry stopped talking to me as well after that. I may have gone about it the wrong way but I'd do the same thing again to protect him," Hermione ruminated.

"On top of that, because I was taking every single elective, the only way for me to be able to attend all my classes was with the use of a time-turner." Hermione ignored the gasps from various people around the room. "I was overwhelmed by my workload, my two friends weren't talking to me—in fact, Ron was quite unpleasant when he did acknowledge me—and I was also helping Hagrid, who had been made the Care of Magical Creatures professor that year. In his first lesson, Hagrid introduced us to Hippogriffs. Draco Malfoy—who else?—ignored everything Hagrid told us about being respectful towards them and walked over to one and insulted it. Buckbeak lashed out and slashed Draco's arm. It was only a slight scratch, which Madam Pomfrey healed in moments, but Draco milked it for all he was worth and Lucius made an official complaint about Buckbeak, asking for him to be executed. So in addition to my school work, I also helped Hagrid prepare for the hearing—pointlessly, as Lucius had already paid for an order of execution before the hearing even took place.

"Eventually, I stormed out of Divination, because it was a waste of my time. It's a useless subject, made worse by the fact that our professor used carnival gypsy fortune-teller tricks to compensate for her shortcomings as a seer. Either you're a seer or you're not. You can't be taught to become a seer, only how to refine the gift if you have it. At the end of the year I also gave up Muggle Studies, so that I could have a normal timetable again.

"During Harry's Divination exam, Professor Trelawney made the second of the two prophecies I'm aware of her making. Lady Hogwarts?"

After watching the prophecy, the two mouthiest people in the room piped up again.

"What a load of nonsense," said Sirius.

"What did that mean?" asked James.

"Again, this is going to be quite a long memory so if you could only show the important parts, my Lady?" Hermione suggested to Lady Hogwarts, who then played for them the key points of Harry, Hermione and Ron visiting Hagrid after the exams; finding Scabbers; Ron being dragged to the Shrieking Shack by Padfoot; the confrontation between the children, Sirius, Remus and Snape; Sirius and Remus forcing Peter out of his Animagus form and Peter confessing; them all going back to the school; Remus transforming; Snape jumping in front of them to try and protect them; Peter escaping; the encouter with Harry, Sirius and the Dementors; Sirius being locked up waiting for the Dementor's Kiss with Fudge refusing to listen to the children; and then it all playing again while Harry and Hermione went back in time to save Sirius and Buckbeak; Sirius' escape on Buckbeak; Harry and Hermione sneaking back into the infirmary and the confrontation with an incandescently furious Severus Snape.

Once again, there was stunned silence but this time Hermione was angry herself and rounded on Professor Dumbledore. "I was fourteen years old and Harry was thirteen. Harry had not yet managed to produce a corporeal Patronus and I had never even been taught the charm, and yet your older self sent us out the into the grounds with a horde of Dementors and a transformed werewolf roaming free! Even if you had reason to think Harry would survive, I didn't have the protections that he did. You employed a werewolf as a teacher but didn't have anyone supervise to make sure he didn't forget to take his damned potion!"

"What potion is that?" asked Severus, looking interested.

"Wolfsbane. It will be developed by Damocles Belby during the eighties, I believe. It allows a werewolf to retain full possession of their faculties during the transformation. It's an extremely difficult potion, which very few people were capable of brewing—and, no, I don't know how to make it. I'm sorry, Remus, I never had the opportunity to study it. Professor Snape provided it for Remus every month. However, despite his being a teacher and supposedly a responsible adult, Remus should always have been supervised to make sure he took it and there were no slip-ups," Hermione said curtly. "Professor Snape accidentally-on-purpose let slip the following morning that Remus was a werewolf and, although he did it because he was so angry about Sirius getting away, I had to agree with what he did, since it was extremely irresponsible of Remus to forget to take his potion that night.

"Professor Dumbledore, you are Headmaster of Hogwarts, where you have complete autonomy and the Ministry has no authority to interfere. You are also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Your older self could have overruled Cornelius Fudge and called for Sirius to be given a trial. You could have given him sanctuary in Hogwarts and arranged for him to be interviewed under Veritaserum in the presence of reliable witnesses, such as Madam Bones, who was the Head of the DMLE at that time. Madam Longbottom would also have been an impeccable witness; given what happened to her son and daughter-in-law, she was hardly likely to give leniency to any Death Eaters."

Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I appreciate that if Harry and I hadn't gone back those three hours, Harry and Sirius would both have been kissed by the Dementors, however, that doesn't alter the fact that your older self put us both in unacceptable danger, sir."

Many of the people in the room were looking furious, clearly agreeing with Hermione. Professor Dumbledore himself was yet again looking rather shame-faced, while Minerva McGonagall and Dorea Potter looked ready to rip his head off. Remus and Severus were both looking thoughtful, no doubt contemplating the Wolfsbane Potion, while Sirius was white from shock, due to seeing the reality of Peter's betrayal and how close he himself had come to receiving the Dementor's Kiss. Charlus Potter and Andromeda Tonks had moved over beside the boys and were doing their best to calm and reassure Sirius.

Hermione could see that Sirius badly needed a break to compose himself. "I realise it's getting late but I'd like to try and cover fourth year as well, if possible. Or at least part of it," she said. "There will be a lot more to cover each year from now on and it would be best if I could finish telling you the entire story this weekend. I don't think we want to drag it out any more than we have to. Perhaps another meal and then I'll cover fourth year?"

Professor Dumbledore agreed and another meal appeared, courtesy of the Hogwarts house elves. As they were eating, Sirius, now recovered from his shock approached Hermione. "Thank you for saving my life," he said.

"You were innocent," she shrugged.

"Nevertheless, you gave me a second chance and I'm going to try to be worthy of it."

"You could start by apologising to Professor Snape and trying to make up with your brother," Hermione suggested.

"I will, after you've finished your saga," he agreed.

"I'm glad. You have it in you to be a good man, Sirius Black, and I'd like to see you realise your potential," Hermione smiled.

.o.O.o.

¹ _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,_ by JK Rowling, Chapter 9.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

Once they had finished eating, Hermione looked round at the people gathered in the Room of Requirement, who were all sitting expectantly, and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she apologised. "No matter how hard the first three years were to talk about, it's only going to get worse now."

Seeing the young woman's distress and remembering that Hermione had said she was an unofficial member of the Weasley family, Molly moved over to sit next to her and give her some moral support.

"Thank you," Hermione whispered gratefully.

"So, fourth year," the brown-haired witch spoke up. "We begin again with Harry back at Privet Drive with the Dursleys and a strange dream he had."

Lady Hogwarts showed the dream and everyone recoiled. "That was _Voldemort_?" Frank Longbottom exclaimed in disgust.

"Was that just a nightmare or was it really a vision of Voldemort?" Moody asked at the same time skeptically.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, it was Riddle. After his encounter with Harry on Halloween 1981, his body was destroyed but he remained on this plane in spirit form. Pettigrew went to find his Master after he escaped at the end of our third year and somehow they managed to create a homunculous to house Riddle's spirit until he could regain a body. They were hiding out in the old Riddle Manor. It was his father's home, which was disused. The old man who was killed was the caretaker, who had been suspected by the Muggle police of murdering the Riddle family, although it was actually Riddle himself who was responsible for their deaths. Of course, Harry didn't have a clue where Riddle was, nor did he know that the dream was real. Harry was reluctant to bother Headmaster Dumbledore about a dream, so he wrote to Sirius instead. Much to Harry's dismay, Sirius promptly replied that he was returning to the UK from wherever he had escaped to. Harry tried to put him off but by the time his owl returned with the letter from Sirius, it was too late and Sirius was already back in Britain.

"Just after Harry had the dream he got a letter from the Weasleys inviting him to join them for the final of the Quidditch World Cup, which was being held in Britain, and no, Sirius, James—Lady Hogwarts will not be showing you the match nor will I tell you the results." Everyone laughed as the boys pouted and Hermione looked over to Arthur, who had moved to sit next to Molly, who was still beside Hermione. "You invited me to join you as well. Molly, you didn't come, but the rest of the family was all there. You had managed to get tickets for the top box for us all and sitting behind us in the box was a very frightened house elf, who was scared of heights, sitting beside an empty seat, which she said she was saving for her Master, Barty Crouch Senior. We all had our wands with us of course, and Harry's was sticking out his back pocket." Hermione sighed and looked across at Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to add a wand holster to the school uniform? Perhaps not as a compulsory item but as a recommended one? Very few students are aware they even exist, let alone purchase them, and it leaves our wands vulnerable. Either that or perhaps Madam Malkin should add special wand pockets to the robes she sells."

Before they could reply to her suggestion, Hermione turned again to Lady Hogwarts. "Would you please show the riot after the match, my Lady? Either from my perspective or from Harry's."

They all watched the incident in silence, the memory ending with Barty Crouch Senior dismissing his elf, Winky. "I assume that the elf was significant?" asked Andromeda Tonks quizzically.

"You mean, apart from the fact that this was my first encounter with a house elf and it made me into a strong proponent of elf rights?" Hermione grinned. Sobering, she explained, "It wasn't so much Winky herself who was important, rather the reason Mr Crouch dismissed her. We didn't find out what the reason really was until the end of the school year, though, and we didn't know it was important until then. In the meantime, everyone returned home safely the next morning. There were no casualties and even the Muggles were all right, if a bit dazed after having been Obliviated of something so major. As for who the Death Eaters were, I don't think that was ever established, although I would guess it was whoever of the inner circle was at the match. They all got scared when they saw the Dark Mark in the sky and ran off before they could be apprehended."

"You said that was the Crouch house elf… wasn't that Barty Crouch Junior we saw setting off the Dark Mark? Didn't you say he was in Azkaban?" asked Poppy diffidently.

"Yes, that was Barty Junior. I'll fill in the details about him later. In the meantime, Lady Hogwarts? Please could you show Professor Dumbledore's announcement at the Welcome Feast that year?" Hermione requested reluctantly. She really did not want to relive what would happen over the next few years but she knew that she had no choice: the story had to be told.

After everyone in the room had witnessed the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione looked around carefully to gauge reactions. Some people, such as Lily and a few others, were looking puzzled and clearly did not know what the Tournament was. Others, such as Sirius, James, Remus, the Prewett twins and even Severus and Regulus were looking excited. The more mature and responsible people present, like Charlus and Dorea Potter, Augusta Longbottom, Amelia Bones, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Poppy Pomfrey, Filius Flitwick, and Molly and Arthur Weasley, were all looking either shocked, horrified or furious.

"Tell me this isn't bait for Riddle again!" roared Augusta Longbottom. "Albus, I swear…"

"Perhaps I should continue," Hermione interrupted, before they could all get sidetracked into berating Albus. "Headmaster, I realise that it was your older self who was responsible for all of this and that I can't really blame you for things that you haven't done yet—things that you won't do, if I have any say in the matter!—but I have a lot of anger over the events of my childhood and it's been building up inside me for a long time. It's hard to keep myself from snapping at you and I apologise for that." While Hermione felt that the censure was undoubtedly justified, she had to keep reminding herself that it was the older Albus Dumbledore who was responsible and that at this time, none of this had actually happened yet.

Dumbledore twinkled at her. "I dare say my older self deserves it. Feel free to snap at me in his place," he said expansively. "Perhaps it will help keep me from making similar mistakes in the future."

Hermione gave him a small smile and then briefly explained exactly what the Triwizard Tournament was to those who did not know. "There was an attempt to make it as safe as possible—as you heard, only students who were of age were permitted to enter themselves into the competition—so anything else that may have happened was not the Headmaster's fault. At least, not this time, anyway."

"What may have happened? Why do I think you really mean _what did happen_?" asked Filius Flitwick resignedly.

"Because you're the Head of the Clever House?" asked Hermione cheekily. As everyone laughed, she made a face. "I don't really like that designation," she ruminated. "Intelligence and wit isn't restricted solely to Ravenclaw. Nor is bravery and valour restricted to Gryffindor, cunning and ambition to Slytherin or loyalty and diligence to Hufflepuff. We all have characteristics of all the Houses in us. It just so happens that the Hat sorts us according to the aspects that are most dominant at the time of our sorting."

Hermione smothered a laugh as everyone looked at her with jaws hanging open, expressions of shock and incomprehension on all their faces. "Heresy, I know. But it's true nevertheless. There would never be any hatstalls otherwise! Consider this: Lily Evans and Severus Snape, not to mention myself when I was at school, were the cleverest students in our year—if not of our generation—and yet none of us were in Ravenclaw. If we have the aspect of only one House within us, all Muggleborns would be in Gryffindor, simply because of the courage it takes to enter this strange new world, and yet there are Muggleborns in almost every House. Heck, even Slytherin has had the occasion Muggleborn sorted into it. Additionally, to bring up another cliché, remember that not all Gryffindors are good and not all Slytherins are evil, otherwise Peter Pettigrew wouldn't have betrayed his friends to the death and Severus Snape wouldn't be one of the bravest and most honourable men I've ever met."

Perhaps predictably, Professor Flitwick, the Head of the House of the Clever was the first to recover his wits. "Well said indeed, Miss Pevensie. Indeed, we do all have traits of all the Houses within us."

Hermione smiled at the diminutive man in appreciation. "Before I discuss the tournament in any depth, I think you need to see our first Defence lesson that year and its immediate after effect."

"I was the Defence teacher?" exclaimed Alastor Moody after watching the memory. Hermione pretended not to hear the question, as she did not want to give too much away yet, and instead explained apologetically to Augusta, Frank and Alice, "Neville was obviously upset after witnessing the _Cruciatus_, given what happened to Frank and Alice. None of us knew at that point why Neville was so upset, though, because he didn't ever speak of his parents. When Harry found out, he wasn't sure—despite the Dursleys and everything he went through in their home—that Neville wasn't worse off than himself. Visiting his parents in St Mungos and seeing only shells, knowing that they didn't recognise him, was heartbreaking for Neville.

"Anyway, back to the Triwizard Tournament. Professor Dumbledore created an age line around the Goblet of Fire, which was surprisingly effective, given the many possible ways of circumventing it—although I suppose I shouldn't assume that it didn't occur to the Headmaster that younger students may try to levitate a piece of parchment with their name into the goblet or might simply ask an older student to put their name in for them." Albus twinkled at her in response and she winked at him. "I only saw the results of a couple of students trying to fool the age line by using an aging potion. It wasn't successful."

"What happened?" asked one of the Prewett twins eagerly.

"And what's the Goblet of Fire?" asked the other twin thoughtfully.

"The goblet is a magical artifact used to choose the champtions for each participating school," Hermione explained briefly.

"My Lady?" she asked. "Please could you show the ceremony where the Champions were selected?"

Lady Hogwarts complied but to Hermione's surprise, first showed Fred and George Weasley trying to cross the age line to enter their names into the goblet. Everyone laughed when they saw the boys being ejected from the protected area around the cup with impressive beards sprouting on their faces. Hermione smiled to herself. _'I always did think that the castle had a bit of a soft spot for mischievous rogues, like the Weasley and Prewett twins and the Marauders.'_

However, the amusement soon turned to anger when Harry's name came out of the goblet and the younger boy, who looked small and undersized compared to the other Champions, was forced to compete.

"Who did it? Who put my son's name into that cup?" screeched Lily. "And why didn't you make sure it couldn't happen, Headmaster? Are you really that irresponsible?"

The red-head looked ready to attack the Headmaster. James held her back but looked soberly at Professor Dumbledore. "Lily makes a good point. Someone was clearly setting up Harry for his death and the possibilty of that happening should have been anticipated."

Hermione cleared her throat loudly and everyone looked at her in surprise. "While I do agree with you that Professor Dumbledore should have been more careful, my ire is directed at the Professor Dumbledore of my time. Don't forget, this hasn't actually happened yet. Harry won't even be born until 1980! There are a lot of things that Professor Dumbledore can do for the students now, such as improving the safety measures within the school and taking action against bullies, but everything I'm telling you about the future… I'm here to make sure none of that happens."

"So," Hermione continued, looking around the room again. "Really, only the third task of the tournament is significant so we don't actually need to see the first two tasks…" she paused for the expected protests. "However, there are aspects of the preparation for those tasks which perhaps you ought to see, so I guess you should see as much of the year as possible.

"First of all, I should probably explain that no one, apart from myself, believed that Harry hadn't put his name in the goblet himself. Most of Gryffindor were pleased to have a Gryffindor Champion, but that didn't stop them regarding him as some kind of cheat. Ron," Hermione looked apologetically at Molly and Arthur. "Ron suffered a little bit from being the youngest of six brothers. Ginny may have been the youngest child but she was the only girl, so she stood out in her own right, but for Ron, his brothers had done everything before him and, mostly, better than him. He found it very hard to get out from their shadow." Seeing the Weasley parents looking guilty, she hastened to reassure them. "I have some ideas about how to address that but there's plenty of time for us talk about it later."

Molly and Arthur nodded and Hermione continued. "I think that deep down Ron really did know that Harry didn't enter himself into the competition. The problem was that not only did Ron feel that he was in all his brothers' shadows, but he was also in his best friend's shadow, and this was just too much for him. Ron refused to believe Harry and barely spoke to him until after the first task, when he finally realised just how much danger Harry was in. At that point, most of the vitriol from the rest of the school against Harry faded too—I think that seeing what the Champions were facing brought things into perspective for the school at large—but until then, the entire school was against him. I don't know what the staff thought but none of the other students believed him when he said he hadn't put his name into the goblet."

"And yet, you did believe him?" asked Dorea Potter kindly.

Hermione nodded. "Harry didn't have many friends at Hogwarts. Oh, don't get me wrong, he got on well with most people, but very few managed to look past the legend of _The Boy Who Lived_. Apart from myself and Ron, I'd say that Fred, George and possibly also Neville were probably the only students who ever saw just _Harry_. Even Ginny at that time had a crush on _The Boy Who Lived_ rather than Harry, although she was making a conscious effort to change that. So we were the only ones who knew him well and only Ron and I knew him well enough to know how much Harry _hated_ the publicity. There is no way Harry would ever willingly have chosen to enter the tournament, even if he were old enough to compete. Ron was too upset to think straight or listen to reason at that point, so that left me as the only student in the school who believed Harry.

"And, again, the staff did nothing to help Harry. There was no announcement by Professor Dumbledore that he believed Harry; there was no effort, even from Professor McGonagall, to stop students wearing badges saying _Potter Stinks_; nor was he even given any assistance in dealing with a rather aggressive and trouble-making reporter named Rita Skeeter. Instead, Harry was just left to sink or swim on his own. Again. Headmistress Maxime and Headmaster Karkaroff both helped the Champions from their schools prepare for the task. I believe that Professor Sprout helped Cedric Diggory. But even though Harry was three years younger than any of the other Champions, I was the only person to help him. Well, sort of, anyway. Lady Hogwarts, please can you show the wand weighing ceremony and Rita's so-called interview with Harry and then what happened when Hagrid gave Harry a hint about the first task?"

They all watched Harry be dragged off into a closet by Rita and saw her Quick-Quotes Quill write what Rita wanted it to instead of what Harry actually said. They then watched Harry sneak out to visit Hagrid and realise that he had to face a dragon. Cries of horror and anger echoed around the room.

"That article caused even more problems for Harry as it opened up innumerable opportunities to make fun of him and, yet again, the staff did nothing to stop the taunts and the jeers. As for the dragon, I tried to help Harry as best I could, but we were two fourth years, both of us Muggle raised, and neither of us knew very much about dragons," explained Hermione sadly.

"Ron, Fred, George or Ginny might have been helpful, what with Charlie being a dragon tamer—they must have heard stories from their brother—but with none of them believing Harry, he didn't ask them. Mind you, I don't know if he would have even asked. Asking for help from anyone other than Ron or myself was still an alien concept to Harry. Anyway, at the same time as worrying about just surviving the task, Harry also worried about the other Champions. Unlike almost everyone else in Hogwarts at the time, Harry was a decent person with morals and ethics and an innate sense of right and wrong and fairness. Don't ask me how, given that he was brought up by Petunia and Vernon Dursley, but that was Harry. Despite the lack of support or assistance, he did something that I'm not sure any of the other Champions would have done for him at that point. Realising that Karkaroff and Madame Maxime would tell their Champions about the dragons and that Cedric was therefore the only one who didn't know, Harry told Cedric. My Lady, please would you show Harry's interview with our, er, Defence teacher after that?"

"I suggested going up against a dragon with only a _broomstick_?" asked Moody aghast.

"Harry was a superb flyer, so it was actually a good plan. I stayed up most of the night with Harry, helping him with the Summoning Charm, until he finally got it," replied Hermione tersely.

Lady Hogwarts then showed the first task, starting with the instructions to the Champions and the selection of their dragons from Harry's perspective. However, she showed the four Champions facing the dragons from Hermione's perspective. Everyone looked positively ill by the end of it. Molly managed a faint smile when she saw Ron make up with Harry but it was clear that it was only half-hearted.

"The egg held the clue to the next task. When it was opened it screeched and the Champions had to interpret the screeches to know what was coming next. This time, Cedric helped Harry and he told him to take a bath with the egg. He gave him the password to the prefects' bathroom and Harry snuck in with the egg. With the help of Moaning Myrtle, Harry eventually worked out that he had to listen to the egg underwater for the screeching to make sense. The clue went like this:

_"Come seek us where our voices sound,  
>We cannot sing above the ground,<br>And while you're searching, ponder this;  
>We've taken what you'll sorely miss,<br>An hour long you'll have to look,  
>And recover what we took,<br>But past an hour—the prospect's black,  
>Too late, it's gone, it won't come back." ¹<em>

"Essentially what it meant was that hostages would be taken and placed in the Mer village in the Black Lake for the Champions to rescue. The second task took place at the end of February. In December, there was a Yule Ball and the Champions had to open it with their dates. Viktor and Cedric's dates to the ball were their hostages for this task. Harry's experience at the ball was a bit disastrous, so his hostage was Ron rather than his date. Fleur's hostage was her nine year old sister."

"Ron?" asked James, amused. "Not you?"

Hermione blushed. "I was Viktor's hostage. Anyway, Cedric and Fleur used the Bubblehead Charm; Viktor made a partial transformation into a shark; and Harry, with the assistance of Dobby, who was now working at Hogwarts, used Gillyweed, which Dobby stole from Professor Snape's stores. Harry reached the hostages first but wasn't thinking straight and took seriously the line about _past an hour—the prospect's black; too late, it's gone, it won't come back_ and waited to be sure that all the hostages were rescued. Fleur didn't manage to get past the Grindylows and Harry rescued Gabrielle as well as Ron. At the end of the first task, Harry and Viktor were tied for first place, followed by Cedric then Fleur. For the second task, Cedric was first back and so got the highest points for that task. Harry was last back but got the second highest score for showing moral fibre in wanting to make sure all the hostages were safe. Viktor was penalised for an incomplete transfiguration, although it makes perfect sense to me that he might have wanted to have his hands free. Fleur's score, of course, reflected the fact that she didn't complete the task. Harry and Cedric were tied for first place after that, followed by Viktor and, lastly, Fleur.

"During the course of the year, Sirius arrived back in Britain. He stayed in a cave outside Hogwarts, in his Animagus form, living on rats, except for when we had Hogsmeade weekends and could sneak him some real food. There wasn't much he could do physically or openly to help Harry but just knowing that Sirius was there helped Harry's morale enormously, even though he was terrified that Sirius would get caught.

"Rita Skeeter had been banned from the grounds but she still managed to write stories about the tournament, obviously with her own poisonous slant on them. Skeeter especially disliked me and worte a particularly nasty piece which resulted in my being overwhelmed with hate mail, some of it containing noxious substances, such as undiluted Bobotuber pus, but she also disliked Harry. He used to collapse, screaming in agony, whenever he received a vision from Riddle, and she started portraying him as insane because of that. I was determined to find out how Rita was getting her stories—they had enough truth in them to make it obvious she was either sneaking onto the grounds or had an inside source—and eventually worked it out at the end of the year.

"The third task was a maze filled with obstacles. The Champions had to find the cup or trophy at the centre of the maze and the one who did would win the tournament. The Champions in first place at the start of the task entered the maze first, with Fleur entering last. The Champions' families had been invited to watch the task but, of course, the Dursleys didn't come. They wouldn't have come even if they had been invited! Molly and Bill came instead. Harry was very grateful to see you; he didn't think he had any family who would be there for him," Hermione said, smiling at Molly. "Lady Hogwarts, please show the task and the aftermath, from Harry's point of view."

Hermione could not bear to watch. Even though she had not personally witnessed the events in the graveyard, she still knew exactly what happened. Hermoine put her feet up on the seat of her armchair and buried her face against her knees, as she tried to block out both the sights and the sounds of the projection. Molly, seeing how upset Hermione was, put her arm around the young woman and Hermione gratefully leaned into her motherly embrace, burying her face in the woman's shoulder. Everyone watched the task in an appalled silence that turned to horror as they watched Harry be transported to the graveyard. The casual killing of Cedric was sickening and Peter Pettigrew's part in resurrecting Riddle disgusted them all. It only got worse as they watched the duel in the graveyard, the _Priori Incantatem_ showing the ghosts of Riddle's last victims, Harry taking Cedric's body back to Hogwarts, the discovery that Alastor Moody was really a Polyjuiced Barty Crouch Jr and his confession to Dumbledore.

Tears streaming down her cheeks, Hermione explained. "That was the start of the second war. Unfortunately, Minister Fudge refused to accept that Riddle was back, partly because of his relationship with Lucius Malfoy, partly because he had been reading Rita Skeeter and believed that Harry had mental problems, but mostly because he chose to stick his head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend that it wasn't happening. He had Barty Crouch Jr Kissed without even questioning him under _Veritaserum_, solely because he would otherwise have been forced to admit that Riddle was back. Harry was taken to the hospital wing after he told the story of what happened and Professor Snape returned to Riddle, as the Order's spy. Professor Dumbledore sent Remus and Sirius to start rounding up the Order of the Phoenix and Sirius stayed in Britain, moving into the Black family home in Grimmauld Place, which, apart from the house elf, Kreacher, was deserted as his parents and Regulus had all died by this time. Because of the superb protections on it, Sirius gave the house to the Order to use and Professor Dumbledore added to those protections by putting it under the _Fidelius_, with himself as Secret Keeper. Finally, Harry was sent back to the Dursleys for the summer, with no contact with anyone—Ron and I were forbidden from writing to him—and no sort of counselling or comfort after witnessing Cedric's death. After, as he believed, _causing_, Cedric's death. Harry felt so guilty for having suggested they share the victory, he had a very hard time of it that summer and, indeed, the following school year as well."

Hermione looked round the room. "Believe it or not, Lady Howarts and I have only shown you the most important parts of that year. There was actually quite a lot more that happened, which I'm not covering or we'd be here all year ourselves.

"To conclude that school year, Harry and Cedric jointly won the tournament but because Cedric was dead, Harry was awarded all the winnings but gave them to Fred and George. Bill was a cursebreaker, Charlie was a dragon-tamer and Percy worked for the Ministry. I'm afraid Percy was a bit of a pompous prat and rather ambitious and he spent a few years putting the Ministry ahead of his family, although he came right in the end. I think he backed himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out. Molly, you wanted Fred and George to follow Arthur and Percy into the Ministry but they didn't want that. They barely got any OWLs, not for lack of intelligence, but beause they didn't see the point as they didn't need the qualifications for their chosen career. They're very intelligent and I think they were actually quite bored in class, which contributed to their lack of interest. Much to your dismay, Molly, they wanted to open a joke shop. Harry gave them his Triwizard winnings to do that because he thought that the wizarding world would need something to help them laugh, given what they were facing."

Suddenly, Hermione blushed. "I managed to capture Rita while we were all sitting in the infirmary with Harry the night after the third task. She was an unregistered Animagus—a beetle to be precise—and that was how she managed to sneak onto the grounds and get all her stories without anyone noticing her. I found her sitting on the window-sill listening in to what was happening in the infirmary and I trapped her in a jar for several weeks before I let her go. I blackmailed her into keeping her poisonous quill to herself for a year."

"How very Slytherin of you, Miss Pevensie," Dumbledore commented, his eyes twinkling.

"My hold over her became useful later," Hermione acknowledged.

Seeing that everyone once again appeared shell-shocked, apart from Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt, who were busily writing down the names of all the Death Eaters who had been identified in that graveyard, Hermione proposed that they break for the night. Hermione herself was trembling from witnessing all that again and from the knowledge that as horrific as the Triwizard Tournament had been, things were only going to get worse from this point on. Molly stayed with Hermione, trying to give her support. Arthur, at a signal from Molly, brought Hermione a glass of water, which she gratefully sipped.

"It's been a long day and things are only going to get darker and more intense as the story continues. I'm also sure you'll have plenty of questions. Perhaps we should break it up for tonight and convene again early tomorrow?" she suggested.

Professor Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a very good idea, Miss Pevensie. Perhaps we could all meet again in this room at nine o'clock tomorrow morning? It would be best if our guests all floo out, rather than exit through the castle. Minerva will escort you to my office to use the floo. If the Hogwarts students could just remain behind for a moment, however."

There were murmurs of agreement and a very subdued group of people began to stand up and make their farewells, while the students stayed in the room as requested. Filius and Pomona decided to remain too, since it was well past curfew. They would escort the students back to their dorms so they would not get into trouble. Sirius, James, Remus, Regulus, Severus, Lily, Frank and his girlfriend, Alice Wood², all clustered around the Headmaster.

"If anyone asks where you were today, Mr Snape and Mr Regulus Black, you have been helping brew potions for the hospital wing. The rest of you have been assisting Professor McGonagall and you have been forbidden to talk about what you were doing. Is that clearly understood?"

"Yes, sir," they all agreed.

Alice looked around and, seeing the discomfort on the faces of the three remaining Marauders, decided to ask the question that they could not bring themselves to ask. "What should we say if anyone asks us about Pettigrew, sir?"

Albus stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I recommend that you say he's been called away for a family emergency for now. I don't think we want to announce just yet that he's been arrested as a Death Eater."

"Perhaps, in that case, they should say he's ill or has an injury. Something that can't be cured easily," Hermione proposed.

Albus raised his eyebrows inquiringly and Hermione explained. "If he's unable to answer a summons, Riddle may get suspicious, especially if Pettigrew has supposedly left the school, from where it would be hard for him to sneak out, and has gone home, from where he would probably be able to leave easily."

"A very good point, Miss Pevensie. Now, what should we say is wrong with young Mr Pettigrew?"

"How about Spattergroit, sir? It would explain why he is in isolation and also why he won't be out of the infirmary in just a day or two," Hermione suggested with a grin.

"I assume there's a story behind that suggestion, too?" asked Amelia Bones with amusement. She and Alastor Moody had not yet left and now she explained why. "Talking of Pettigrew, we should take him into custody."

"Err, the Ministry is infiltrated with Death Eaters and sympathisers, Madam Bones. So is the DMLE. Perhaps it may be better to leave Pettigrew here. I'm sure Lady Hogwarts will allow you to interrogate him. I would suggest you do so under _Veritaserum_ and there are a number of questions I would recommend you ask him," Hermione mused.

"Oh?" Amelia asked, raising an eyebrow imperiously.

"I'm sorry, Madam Bones. I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job but my experiences make me wary. I feel it's good to have a record of certain things," Hermione explained.

"I see. Well, what are your questions, Miss Pevensie?"

"Firstly, please ask what he had to do in order to receive his Dark Mark. Riddle doesn't accept just anyone into his ranks—they have to prove themselves to him. Secondly, ask what he has done in the service of his Master since then. Mind you, even if he hasn't committed any atrocities since then, what he did to be awarded the Mark would probably be enough to convict him. Thirdly, please ask if it's possible to be Imperiused into getting the Mark. After the first Voldemort war, a lot of Death Eaters escaped jail by claiming Imperius_,_ and were never even questioned because they were such fine, upstanding citizens. Fine, upstanding, _rich and generous_ citizens. Not that I'm accusing anyone of accepting bribes, of course," Hermione said blandly and Moody snorted in appreciation. "However, from what I understand, the Dark Mark uses a person's own magic to take hold and I'm given to understand that for that to happen successfully, the Mark has to be taken voluntarily. The Dark Mark would not take hold under the Imperius.

"Anyway," she continued. "Just in case any of them manage to escape what I've planned, though I don't think they will, it would be a good idea to clarify that point _before_ they can buy their way out of jail. Finally, the most obvious question of all: a list of all those he knows to be Death Eaters or sympathisers; that way you'll be able to round them up before they have a chance to try and bribe their way out of trouble. Oh, it might also be worth asking if Pettigrew knows where Riddle is hiding but I doubt he will. The Dark Mark acts as a kind of portkey to take the Death Eaters to their Master when he summons them, so they don't actually need to know his location. It wouldn't hurt to ask, though."

Alastor Moody had been nodding in approval throughout Hermione's speech. "Have you ever thought of becoming an Auror, girlie? You've got good instincts there."

"Not so much instincts as hard-won experience, Auror Moody. I appreciate the compliment but I've done enough fighting. When this is all over, I'll be glad to leave chasing down bad guys to others."

With that, they all parted ways. Lady Hogwarts had promised to allow Amelia and Moody to interrogate Pettigrew once Hermione had finished her story, after having assured Dumbledore that the boy would be fed and housed humanely.

Back in her chambers, Hermione tumbled exhaustedly into bed and downed a Dreamless Sleep potion. That was something she only did rarely as she did not want to become addicted, however, she knew that after telling her story today, that after seeing those memories of Harry and Ron, she would undoubtedly have dreams and nightmares. She just could not face that tonight, not when she still had the worst of the story yet to tell.

.o.O.o.

The next morning, the same group of people had reconvened early in the Room of Requirement. Remembering how upset Hermione had been reliving her experiences the previous day, Molly made sure to sit next to the girl again, to support her as best she could.

"There's still a lot to tell and I'd like to get through it all today, if possible. There will be food and drink on the serving tables all day, so just go and take something when you need it, rather than waiting for formal breaks," Hermione warned before continuing her story.

"Professor Dumbledore had members of the Order of the Phoenix watching Harry the summer before fifth year to make sure he would be safe but he didn't actually tell Harry that. Harry might have felt better if he had known and might even have taken the opportunity to talk to them about what happened in that graveyard, especially if Remus was one of the relevant Order members. Unfortunately, not only did Professor Dumbledore not tell Harry, he also chose to trust Mundungus Fletcher," Hermione began.

_"Dung?"_ exclaimed Moody in disbelief and Hermione grimaced in acknowledgement.

"I'm afraid so," she said. "My Lady, please would you show what happened the night Dung was supposed to be watching Harry?"

_"Dementors?_ My son and nephew were attacked by _Dementors?_" Lily shrieked, before James shushed her to watch the rest of the evening play out.

"Harry was threated with expulsion for defending himself?" James asked blankly when the incident stopped playing.

Hermione nodded. "Harry was collected shortly after that incident and taken to Headquarters. He was absolutely furious, and rightly so. He'd been left alone to stew all summer after having watched Cedric be killed, he'd been attacked by Dementors, he'd been threated with expulsion and still no one would tell him anything. He blew up quite spectacularly with us when he arrived and basically spent most of that year being angry. Anyway, he had to attend a hearing… My Lady?"

"Harry was tried in front of the entire Wizengamot for _underage magic?_" asked Charlus Potter in disbelief, after watching the trial.

"The Minister absolutely refused to acknowledge that Riddle had returned. As Harry was saying otherwise, he therefore had to be discredited. The _Daily Prophet_, which was basically a Ministry mouthpiece rather than an actual newspaper, spent the entire summer publishing articles that portrayed Harry as an attention-seeking, deluded, deranged lunatic. Minister Fudge obviously thought that the members of the Wizengamot would all be convinced Harry was just an arrogant troublemaker and they would all convict him, thus removing the thorn from his side. Fudge didn't bargain on Director Bones being honest and just, nor on Professor Dumbledore's defence. Of course, Harry had acted in self-defence, which was a justifiable exception to the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. As for the charge of breaking the International Statute of Secrecy, Harry did magic in front of two people: Arabella Figg, who is a squib; and Dudley Dursley, who is the cousin Harry lived with and who therefore already knew about magic. The entire hearing was nonsense but wizards aren't exactly known for their logic," she said apologetically.

"Maia?" asked Molly. "Was that our Percy there? He seemed a bit…"

Hermione sighed internally. "Percy's a bit uptight compared to the rest of your children. He also spent about three years as a Ministry toady, sucking up to those who he thought could help him rise in the ranks. He was rather ambitious and a bit pompous, without much of a sense of humour. He tended to focus on trivia and minutiae and mindlessly obeying rules—probably the only Weasley I ever met who even knew what a rule was, much less followed it!—because he couldn't see the big picture. He broke off all contact with his family that summer, blindly following the Ministry rather than his family. He came all right in the end, though." Hermione noticed Arthur and Molly both suppressing grins at the idea that Weasleys did not understand the concept of rules; Fred and George had come by their sense of mischief honestly.

"Who was the toad?" asked one of the Prewett twins curiously.

_'I really need to meet them properly and learn which is which,'_ thought Hermione, as she listened with half an ear to Molly reprimanding her brother.

"Fabian, really! I'm sure she's a delightful woman, despite her unfortunate looks."

Hermione snorted at the thought of the toad being a delightful woman. "That was Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. A witch of at best mediocre ability, who was fanatically loyal to Cornelius Fudge—well, actually anyone in power—and who detested all creatures, beasts, beings, half-breeds, Muggleborns... you get the idea. She wasn't a marked Death Eater but her sympathies certainly lay in that direction. She was responsible for some horrendously prejudicial and restrictive legislation. It was her rabid persecution of half-breeds that saw the introduction of anti-werewolf legislation, for example, that made it practially illegal for werewolves to get a job. Of course, if they had been able to obtain gainful employment, they would have been able to afford to buy Wolfsbane, they wouldn't be dangerous, and they wouldn't need to live like street rats under the leadership of Fenrir Greyback, all for lack of any other options. It was a vicious circle. And those were her better qualities."

"Why do I think that isn't the last we're going to see of her?" queried Andromeda Tonks, quizzically.

"Because you're a suspicious Slytherin?" replied Hermione with a grin, as Andromeda's eyes gleamed in appreciation at the quip. Hermione's smile faded. "Rightly so, I'm afraid. Dolores Umbridge was our Defence Professor that year and it was horrendous. Lady Hogwarts, please could you show the speech at the Welcoming Feast and the important points from both our first Defence lesson and Harry's first detention?"

"I didn't understand that," said a bored looking Sirius, after seeing Dolores Umbridge interrupt Professor Dumbledore's welcome to the school with her own speech.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione queried. "The Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts." With a nod to Lady Hogwarts, the Defence lesson and Harry's detenion played out for all to see. The silence afterwards was deafening. It appeared that even Lily was simply too appalled to rage.

"SHE USED A BLOOD QUILL ON MY GRANDSON?" Charlus Potter roared.

Hermione nodded. "This is where Professor Dumbledore's policy of keeping his cards close to his chest began to cause real problems," Hermione explained sadly. "Although the Headmaster came to support Harry at his trial, he didn't speak to Harry or even look at him. Harry was quite hurt by this as he had always felt that Professor Dumbledore was there for him, something which he felt about very few other adults. Headmaster, your older self continued that policy to the end of the school year, leaving Harry very hurt and confused. You actually had a good reason for it but, unfortunately, it caused more trouble than it was worth. If you had just told Harry the reason, he wouldn't have been so resentful of you for avoiding him. Even if you hadn't wanted to tell him the actual reason, if you had only told him you had _a_ reason but couldn't explain what it was at that time and that you were very sorry about it, he wouldn't have felt so bad.

"Between Harry's habit of not asking adults for help—heck, he barely even used to ask Ron or myself for help—and his resentment over Professor Dumbledore keeping clear of him, he was stubbornly determined not to let Umbridge see she had got to him and he didn't tell anyone about the blood quill at first. The problem was, he had a solid week of detentions with Umbridge, all with that damn quill. Eventually, Harry confessed to Ron what she was doing to him and we tried to get Harry to tell someone—the Headmaster or Professor McGonagall—but he refused. Harry said that no one could help him and he wasn't far wrong. Umbridge continued giving him more detentions at every possible opportunity, until Harry was permanently scarred from that damn quill. Umbridge was given increasing amounts of authority by the Ministry—even being made Hogwarts High Inquisitor. As such, she had the power to fire staff, to overrule them on punishments, and to institute whatever new rules she wanted, no matter how restrictive or unjust. Umbridge made sure we didn't learn anything in Defence, she prohibited professors from talking to students unless it directly concerned their subjects, she fired Hagrid and Trelawney, she installed the Slytherin senior students as her Inquisitorial Squad, giving them the right to take points from other students... Hell, I can't even remember all her offences.

"Of course, we fought back as best we could. Ron and I persuaded Harry to start teaching us Defence, since his experiences had made him very good indeed at that subject. Most importantly, he was the only student who knew what it was like to face Riddle. We also invited a number of other students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to join us. Unfortunately, Umbridge eventually found out about the DA—the Defence Association or Dumbledore's Army." The Headmaster looked rather taken aback but still quite flattered and Hermione explained. "Fudge was absolutely paranoid and had convinced himself that not only was Professor Dumbledore was after his job, but the Headmaster was trying to create his own private army, so we decided to call ourselves after Fudge's worst fear. That was Ginny's suggestion," Hemione said, with a smile to Molly and Arthur.

"We found somewhere secret to meet. This room, actually. Dobby, the house elf Harry had freed from the Malfoys, was working at Hogwarts and he told Harry about this room. It was perfect. We used fake galleons enchanted with a Protean Charm as a means of communication..."

"A Protean Charm?" Albus queried significantly and Hermione blushed.

"Yes, sir. You're quite right. I got the idea from the Dark Mark but installing it into a fake galleon is a lot different from burning it into someone's skin, nor does it tie anyone's magic permanently into the charmed galleon."

"Very well done, Miss Pevensie. That's very impressive for a fifth year. I can see why you want to apprentice in Charms," said Filius approvingly.

"Miss Pevensie, what do you mean about not tying anyone's magic permanently into the charmed galleon?" Severus asked quietly.

Hermione sighed. "I had hoped to cover this later but I'll explain now, at least in part. When someone takes the Dark Mark, Riddle links their magic to it, and by extension to himself—it's how he's able to use it to summon his followers."

"If Riddle's followers are linked to him through their Dark Mark, does that mean that if we kill Riddle, they will die too?" asked Severus, in the same quiet tone.

"That depends on how we kill him, Mr Snape." Hermione's bald statement met an uneasy silence, as people looked at each other uncomfortably, trying to work out what she meant by that.

"Don't worry," she reassured them. "What I have in mind will not damage our souls, nor should it affect anyone who is truly remorseful and repentant."

Not wanting to debate the issue further at this time, Hermione ruthlessly continued with her story, ignoring the continued uneasy looks from those who had not yet been faced with the reality of fighting Death Eaters and were still rather naïve as to what war entailed. Amelia Bones, Mad Eye Moody, the Prewett twins, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Charlus Potter all looked far more pragmatic and accepting, which did not surprise Hermione. So, too, did Dorea Potter and Augusta Longbottom, which matched Hermione's memory of Neville's grandmother from the Battle of Hogwarts. Dorea surprised Hermione for a moment, until the younger witch remembered that Dorea might be a Potter by marriage, but she had still been born and bred a Black.

"Eventually, one of the members of the DA betrayed us to Umbridge. I had made it so that anyone who betrayed us would regret it but I didn't make it so that no one could actually do so. I didn't know how, I'm afraid, though I think I would be able to work it out now. Dobby warned us in the middle of a DA meeting and we all managed to get away except Harry, however, Professor Dumbledore took the blame for the DA."

Lady Hogwarts displayed the confrontation in Dumbledore's office. There was plenty of laughter and cheering when Dumbledore attacked Umbridge and those who were with her. As for what Hermione did to Marietta Edgecombe for betraying them...

"I'm impressed," said a Prewett twin in awe, to the accompaniment of vigorous nods from Sirius and James.

"Even we wouldn't have done that," said Sirius incredulously.

Hermione snorted. "No, you would have done something juvenile and embarrassing, which would have been appropriate if all she had done was snitch about something inconsequential. We were at war, however, and the consequences to all of us were potentially far more severe. Especially those of us who were close to Harry or who were Muggleborn."

Suddenly, Hermione grinned evilly. "Umbridge was appointed Headmistress by the Minister after Professor Dumbledore left, but Hogwarts herself didn't accept her appointment and sealed the Headmaster's office against her. Umbridge had quite a tantrum about that! Of course, once Professor Dumbledore was ousted, the students no longer held back and began to make Umbridge's life as difficult as we possibly could. The staff did nothing to help her, saying they didn't have the authority. She couldn't even argue with that as she was the one who had taken the authority away from them." She glanced over at the Marauders and the Prewett twins. "I'm sure you're dying to know what we did to her but you'll have to ask Lady Hogwarts another time," she said and they pouted in disappointment.

"Fred and George were gearing up to opening their joke shop and a lot of their products were showcased in the rebellion against Umbridge, which might well have contributed to the later success of their shop. Umbridge had managed to have Harry, Fred and George all banned from Quidditch, supposedly for life, although Professor Dumbledore later reversed that decision. Umbridge had taken away their broomsticks and had them chained up somewhere—according to rumour, she actually had security trolls guarding the brooms. Lady Hogwarts, please would you show the twins' exit from Hogwarts?"

Lady Hogwarts showed them setting off their portable swamp and the confrontation with Umbridge, resulting in their grand exit. Once again, the pranksters in the room were loudly enthusiastic. Molly appeared angry with her sons but if you looked, you could see the smile that she was suppressing. Fred and George had inherited their mischievousness from the Prewett side of the family, after all. In contrast, Professor Flitwick was most impressed with their charmwork. "I'm going to look forward to teaching those two miscreants," he said.

Hermione continued her story. "The twins' escape was near the end of the year and I need to go back in time a bit to cover the more serious events of that year. Despite having spent time at Headquarters before school began, we didn't know what the Order was doing. We had managed to gather that they were guarding something, but we didn't know what it was or what the significance of it was. Of course, it was the prophecy. Riddle was keeping a low profile because he didn't know how he had been defeated when Harry was a baby nor did he know the full prophecy. Riddle was worried that the prophecy was very significant and would explain how Harry had defeated him previously.

"Riddle made a few attempts to get it by subterfuge. He or his Death Eaters Imperiused Sturgis Podmore, who was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, to steal it but Podmore was arrested and sentenced to six months in Azkaban. Then they tried to get Broderick Bode to get it for them, since he was an Unspeakable and would have access to the Hall of Prophecies. They didn't seem to know that only the people involved in the prophecy could take it and when they tried to Imperius Bode, he resisted, perhaps because he knew what the defences around the prophecy would do to him. Bode suffered spell damage that affected his mind and was later killed—surprisingly subtly—just when he began to recover. Bode was in the long term spell damage ward of St Mungo's and was sent a present of a potted plant, which turned out to be Devil's Snare disguised as a Flitterbloom. Anyway, just before Christmas, Harry had another of those important dreams. Lady Hogwarts, if you would?"

Lady Hogwarts showed them Harry's dream, him waking in a panic and rousing Gryffindor Tower; Professor McGonagall taking him to the Headmaster; Dumbledore sending Dilys Derwent's portrait to take action; and sending Harry and the Weasleys off to Grimmauld Place. Molly and Arthur looked very pale at the end and Hermione hastened to reassure them.

"Thanks to that dream, Arthur was found in time to save him. Nagini, Riddle's snake had been corrupted by Dark Magic and was highly venomous. With Professor Snape's secret help, an anti-venin was created and Arthur survived Nagini's attack with no side effects."

"Harry seems to have made a point of saving the lives of members of my family," Arthur commented shakily.

Hermione smiled at him. "Harry had a bit of a 'saving people' thing. He would have helped anyone he had seen in that vision but he was particularly close to your family, which made it all the more important to him. Harry became worried that he had somehow been possessed by Riddle but Ginny soon put him right on that, since she actually had been possessed by his diary and could tell him this wasn't the same thing at all. No one knew what the connection between Harry and Riddle really was, except for Professor Dumbledore and he didn't share that information. Instead he told Harry that he had to learn Occlumency and tasked Professor Snape with teaching him."

Hermione sighed again. _'I seem to be doing a lot of that lately,'_ she thought in amusement. "How anyone would have thought that would go well is beyond me," she said aloud. "Harry and Professor Snape _hated_ each other with a passion and it was an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately, Professors Snape and Dumbledore were the only Occlumens in the school and the Headmaster still wasn't speaking or talking to Harry. It might have been better if you had given me a book to read and told me to use that to teach Harry myself, Headmaster. I'm not going into details but it culminated in Professor Snape tossing Harry out and telling him not to come back.

"There were a number of issues preventing Harry from learning Occlumency. First of all, the Headmaster instructed Professor Snape to teach Harry as quickly as possible, so there was no time to ease him into it by first teaching him to meditate. Secondly, Professor Snape didn't know _how_ to teach Occlumency. He was a natural Occlumens and had never needed to be taught himself, so between that and the need for Harry to learn quickly, his attempts to teach it were rather brutal. Thirdly, the connection between Harry and Riddle was unique and I'm not sure it would actually have made a difference. Fourthly, Harry's relationship with Professor Snape was such that the entire exercise was doomed to disaster, right from the start. Finally, Harry was angry and resentful and didn't particularly _want_ to learn, especially when he didn't see the need. This goes back to the Headmaster keeping things close to his chest and not sharing."

Hermione turned to face Dumbledore. "Harry was dreaming of a door at the end of a corridor. Harry didn't realise Riddle was showing it to him deliberately and and so he wanted to see what was behind the door. Riddle used this to bait a trap for him and Harry fell for it. I know your older self didn't want to tell Harry the prophecy yet but you could have just explained that the prophecy existed and that you would tell him what it said when the time was right. If you had told Harry that only he or Riddle could get the record of the prophecy and that Riddle may try and trick Harry into going and getting it for him, since he couldn't go into the Ministry to get it himself, Harry might have been more wary.

"Anyway," continued Hermione, "although Riddle was laying low that year, he did act to break out the Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban. Ten of the most loyal and notorious Death Eaters, including the three Lestranges, Augustus Rookwood and Antonin Dolohov. Of course, the Ministry blamed Sirius for it, instead of accepting the truth that Riddle was back. That gave Neville the impetus he needed to work on his spell work and he became very good at Defence, thanks to Harry's tutoring, despite still battling with a wand that didn't work properly for him.

"In amongst everything else that was happening, I arranged for Harry to give an interview with Rita Skeeter on a Hogsmeade weekend, to be published in _The Quibbler._ It's an... _unusual_ publication but the Ministry story left a lot of holes and people wanted answers. The proprietor's daugher, Luna Lovegood, was a Ravenclaw in the year below us and became a friend that year. Luna helped to arrange it all. Umbridge was furious and made it an offence to be caught in possession of _The Quibbler_, which, of course, only made everyone all the more determined to read it. By the end of the week, everyone in the school had read it. The junior Death Eaters in Slytherin weren't too happy, because Harry had named all their fathers. but there wasn't actually anything they could do about it, since they coldn't admit to having read the article."

There were several smirks at this, primarily from the Slytherins in the room—namely Dorea Potter, Andromeda Tonks, Severus Snape and Regulus Black—and the various pranksters.

"As always," said Hermione, "everything came to a head at the end of the year. Umbridge ousted Hagrid, taking a team of Aurors with her. I'm not sure if they were to eject him by force or if Umbridge was going to try and have him arrested on some trumped up charges. It took place in the middle of our Astronomy OWL so we saw it all. My Lady?"

Lady Hogwarts showed it from Hermione's perspective. Everyone felt the upset and horror of the students as Professor McGonagall was attacked. Hermione gave her favourite professor a small smile. "Madam Pomfrey sent you to St Mungos. You were back before the end of the year but with both yourself and the Headmaster gone, it meant that the only member of the Order left on staff was Professor Snape and he had a cover to maintain, so when Harry got another vision in the middle of our History of Magic OWL, we had no one to turn to, even if Harry had been inclined to go to Professor Snape for help. Lady Hogwarts, please could you show that day's events?"

Everyone watched in silence as they saw the image of Sirius being tortured at the Department of Mysteries, Harry trying to get hold of Sirius at Grimmauld Place, Kreacher telling Harry that Sirius wasn't there, Umbridge capturing Harry and his friends, Harry trying to give a message to Snape, Hermione deceiving Umbridge and leaving her to the mercy of the centaurs, and then the friends climbing onto the thestrals.

"Lady Hogwarts, please could you pause there?" Hermione asked. When the Spirit of the Castle did as requested, Hermione explained. "Professor Snape did in fact understand what Harry was saying and verified that Sirius was indeed at Grimmauld Place, but he couldn't find us to let us know that because we were already in the Forbidden Forest by the time he had spoken to Sirius. Professor Snape's relationship with Sirius was still rather fraught, I might add. Sirius was stuck in Grimmauld Place and couldn't leave due to the Kiss-on-Sight order, as there was still no proof he was innocent. Sirius hated Grimmauld Place and he hated Kreacher and he felt as much imprisoned there as he had in Azkaban. Sirius, due to his frustration with his situation, and Professor Snape, due to his understandable dislike of Sirius, fought every time they saw each other. As for Sirius' treatment of Kreacher... well, let's just say it was as bad in its own way as Lucius Malfoy's treatment of Dobby. At one point over Christmas, when Sirius was angry and frustrated and Kreacher annoyed him, he yelled at Kreacher to get out."

Hermione shook her head sadly. "What people don't realise is that elves have their own magic and intelligence. Firstly, as witnessed by Dobby, they can in fact disobey their Masters as long as they punish themselves afterwards. Secondly, being told to 'Get out!' had multiple interpretations. Kreacher desperately wanted to be owned by Bellatrix Lestrange rather than his 'blood traitor' Master and so when Sirius told him to get out, meaning get out of the room we were in at the time, Kreacher chose to interpret it as to get out of the house. Kreacher went to visit Bellatrix, who of course was delighted to have a conduit into the Order and instructed Kreacher to return and lie that night as to Sirius' whereabouts. Professor Snape managed to rouse the Order to come to our rescue and as for Kreacher, well, you'll need to wait for about another year and a half for that to be resolved."

With a nod from Hermione, Lady Hogwarts showed the Battle at the Department of Mysteries; the orb being smashed by Harry; Sirius dying; Dumbledore's fight with Riddle and Fudge's acknowledgement, finally, that Riddle was back. She also showed the confrontation with Dumbledore and Harry in Dumbledore's office and the explanations Harry was finally given, including Dumbledore's disclosure of the prophecy in its entirety.

Hermione turned to the Headmaster again and explained sadly. "Sirius' death was the fault of a number of people: Bellatrix obviously; Sirius himself for not taking the fight seriously; Harry for not practising Occlumency and for not remembering that Sirius had given him a communication mirror, which would have been a better way to try and contact him than the one open floo in the school, which just happened to be in Umbridge's office; and Professor Dumbledore, for not warning Harry that Voldmort might try and trick him into coming to the Department of Mysteries to get the prophecy. There was plenty of blame to go around but, Harry being Harry, he shouldered it all himself. He also blamed himself for the injuries the rest of us sustained during the fight, even though we had all insisted on accompanying him and I was injured only because I was foolish enough to silence Dolohov instead of stunning him.

"We all recovered from our injuries, though, and we learned a valuable lesson. Namely that stunning Death Eaters, that using school kid spells against Death Eaters, is pointless. I'm not advocating killing indiscriminately but in a fight, when you put someone down, you have to make sure they _stay_ down. Instead, we were stunning them and the other Death Eaters were just coming along and _Rennervating_ them again behind us. If you don't take your enemy completely out the fight, you're putting yourself at risk, you're putting your co-fighters at risk and you're putting the people you're trying to defend at risk."

Dumbledore looked as though he was about to protest but Amelia Bones, Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Prewett twins and Charlus Potter were all nodding in agreement. Hermione hastened to explain before Dumbledore could voice his objections. "I know that not everyone is capable of killing or injuring others. It's good to have scruples—we shouldn't take such an act lightly, nor should we kill if we can avoid it—but the kind of hesitation that particular scruple might cause could be fatal."

Then Hermione did something that took everyone by surprise. She whipped out her wand and cast a spell, stunning one of the Prewett brothers. As everyone exclaimed in shock, she addressed his twin and his sister. "I only stunned him. Try and _Rennervate_ him."

Molly and Gideon did as instructed but, to their surprise, Fabian did not come round. Hermione let them struggle for a few minutes and then cast the counter charm. When Fabian was sitting back in his seat again, Hermione explained. "That was a spell I developed after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. It took me a long time to create it as there's rather a lot of detail involved, but I managed eventually. It's essentially a super-powered stunner. It won't wear off by itself, like a regular stunner, nor can it be lifted by just anyone. I first designed it to be lifted only by the person who actually cast the stunner, but I was concerned about what that would mean for the person who had been stunned if something should happen to the original caster, so I modified it slightly. Now it can be lifted either by the original caster of the spell or by three people working in concert. You may have noticed that the spell and it's counter sounded like nonsense?" Everyone nodded and she continued her explanation.

"To keep the knowledge of this spell and its counter out of the hands of the Death Eaters, I also worked out how to put a modified Fidelius onto the spells, so that while the spells can be used by anyone who knows the secret, only the Secret Keepers (which were Harry, Ron and myself) can actually tell others the incantations for the spells. Any other person who hears the spells will only hear gibberish. The secret can't even be found through Legilimency, as it has to be given up voluntarily. At some point, I'll remove the Fidelius but for now, it's best to keep the spell under Fidelius so the Death Eaters can't use it or counter it."

There was a stunned silence. "That is _brilliant_," said Pomona Sprout in awe. "Filius, I don't know what Miss Pevensie will be capable of once she has completed her Mastery but I rather think she might well outclass you."

Filius was looking over the moon at the prospect of mentoring this extremely talented young woman through her Mastery, while Minerva was looking torn between pride and disappointment that, in this timeline, Hermione would not be regarded as a Gryffindor.

Hermione smiled, "Thank you, Professor Sprout," she said. "I'll teach everyone here the spell before we leave this room tonight and I'll also make Madam Bones and Professor Dumbledore additional Secret Keepers, as I trust them not to hand out the spell to everyone and anyone. However, Madam Bones should be very careful as the DMLE has been infiltrated by Death Eaters and Riddle sympethisers. I'm not sure I would even give the knowledge of this spell to Mr Crouch senior."

Amelia nodded in terse acknowledgement and Hermione carried on her story. "There isn't much more to say about Fifth Year. Harry didn't tell Ron or myself about the prophecy until later because he was still processing everything that had happened and he wasn't sure if he was allowed to tell anyone; the Death Eaters that were caught at the Ministry were sentenced to Azkaban; and Harry was shunted back off to the Dursleys, again without any sort of counselling or anyone to talk to about what had happened. At least he was allowed communication, though, as a group of Order members—Arthur, Mad-Eye, Remus and Tonks—all met him at Kings Cross on our way home from school and threatened Vernon Dursley into treating Harry well over the summer. Harry said later that the Dursleys completely ignored him, which suited him just fine."

"Err, when you say Tonks?" asked Ted with a smile.

"Your daughter, Nymphadora, became an Auror and a member of the Order. She absolutely _hated_ her name, by the way. She used to get very annoyed with anyone who used it. She insisted on being called Tonks, although she allowed yourself, Madam Tonks and Remus to call her Dora."

"And just why did Remus get special treatment from my little cousin? Does she have a bit of a crush on Moony?" asked Sirius slyly, with a smirk at a blushing Remus

"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" replied Hermione, smirking in turn at Sirius' crestfallen expression, as he was denied the immediate opportunity to tease his friend.

.o.O.o.

¹ _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 25_

² At the time of writing, we don't yet know Alice Longbottom's maiden name (I'm hoping it will appear on Pottermore eventually, together with more information about Hermione's parents) but when I saw that the actress who played her in the films is called Lisa _Wood_ and we know that seems to be a wizarding name (as per Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain), I couldn't resist using it, even though I prefer not to use the actors' names in my fanfics.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

"If nothing else, our escapade at least meant that there was no more denying the return of Tom Riddle. Cornelius Fudge was ousted as Minister and Madam Bones," Hermione looked apologetically at Amelia, "was murdered by Death Eaters that summer. Presumably to prevent her becoming the new Minister, as she would have been a formidable opponent. Instead Rufus Scrimgeour was appointed Minister but, unfortunately, he seemed to be more concerned with trying to make the Ministry look good than with actually doing anything constructive. He was determined to get Harry to support the Ministry publicly but Harry wasn't interested in doing so—quite understandably, given his previous experiences with the Ministry.

"That summer, Professor Dumbledore had Harry stay at the Dursleys for as long as was necessary to charge the wards and for no longer. He himself collected Harry and took him to the Burrow. We weren't using Headquarters because, even though Sirius had left everything to Harry, there was still a concern that the Black inheritance could only go to a Pureblood. Even though Harry was a Black through Dorea Black Potter, he was a Half-blood. Lady Hogwarts, please can you show what happened when Professor Dumbledore came to collect Harry from the Dursleys, up until the Headmaster left Harry at the Burrow?"

Everyone watched as Dumbledore sat down to talk to Harry in front of the Dursleys. They all noticed Vernon Dursley's interest in Harry's inheritance from Sirius; all the Blacks and Potters present growled in response, all privately resolving to make sure that if Harry should end up with the Dursleys again, Petunia and Vernon would never be able to touch Harry's inheritances. When they saw Dumbledore's withered hand, everyone gasped and looked at Hermione but she only shook her head, so they returned their attention to the scenes playing out before them, realising that Hermione would explain what had happened to Dumbledore only when she was ready to do so.

"If Horace came back to teach potions, what was Mr Snape doing that year?" Minerva asked afterwards.

"He was teaching Defence. Of course, we initially assumed Professor Slughorn would be teaching Defence, since we didn't know what his subject was and, of course, Defence was the only subject needing a new professor. It was well-known that Professor Snape had applied for the Defence position every year but, even though it was undoubtedly exasperating for him to see idiots like Gilderoy Lockhart in that position year after year, I'm not sure how much he actually wanted the position. I have a feeling he was applying more for form's sake, since he needed to be at Hogwarts and could not risk being ousted after a year. I also think that given Professor Snape's expertise in this area and his knowledge of how Death Eaters fight, the Headmaster waited to put Professor Snape in this position until the time when it would do the most good. Riddle had spent all of the previous year hiding while he tried to access the prophecy. Now that it was known he was back, he returned to his previous ways of death and destruction."

There were a number of nods from people round the room, most notably the Aurors, as they could understand the value of having the Severus Snape they had seen in these memories teach Defence when he was most desperately needed in that position.

"What were my private lessons with Harry about?" Albus asked curiously.

"They weren't exactly lessons, sir. You had spent years finding out all you could about Tom Marvolo Riddle and you showed Harry your memory of visiting him to give him his first Hogwarts letter, of memories you had collected from other people regarding their interactions with the Gaunts, your interactions with Riddle and anything else you thought could be useful.

"There isn't much to show about that year. There were only a few significant things that happened. The first is that when we were in Diagon Alley getting our school things, we followed Draco Malfoy to Borgin & Burkes. We heard him talking about something that needed to be repaired but didn't find out at that time what it was. Harry became convinced that Draco had taken the Dark Mark but Ron and I didn't think so. I thought Draco was too young, as he had only just turned sixteen that summer. Harry was right, though. Lucius was among those arrested at the Department of Mysteries and to punish Lucius for his failure, Riddle made Draco take the Dark Mark and gave him a task which he fully intended Draco to fail, namely to kill Professor Dumbledore."

There were more gasps of horror at this news. "Draco did try but he didn't succeed. Narcissa had understood the Dark Lord's intention and during the summer she visited Professor Snape to persuade him to help Draco. Professor Snape already knew of Draco's task and he agreed to make an Unbreakable Vow to that effect. He tried to get Draco to confide in him during the year but didn't succeed. Draco was too scared to ask for help, especially as it seemed that Professor Snape was high up in the Dark Lord's ranks while Lucius had fallen to the bottom. Apart from a couple of half-baked ideas to try and kill the Headmaster, Draco spent much of his time here in the Room of Requirement. We didn't know what he was doing and merely asking the room to show you what someone else has been using it for doesn't work. You have to ask for something specific.

"This was the year when Professor Dumbledore finally told Harry how Riddle had been able to return after being defeated when Harry was a baby. He also explained the significance of the diary that Lucius Malfoy had planted on Ginny in our second year." Hermione suddenly looked very grave. "I need to make it very clear that you will not be able to talk about this. Lady Hogwarts has placed wards so that the subject cannot be discussed, not even amongst yourselves. What Riddle did was the foulest of Dark magic and it is not something that should be common knowledge."

Hermione looked around the room. Some were curious, others looked concerned—perhaps even fearful—and Dumbledore looked like he wished to interrupt. She decided to address him first. "Headmaster, I know you're not going to approve of me sharing this information but it's necessary," she informed him resolutely and he nodded reluctantly.

"You may or may not have heard of an Ancient Grecian Dark wizard, named Herpo the Foul," she began. Some of her listeners already had dawning understanding and horror of their faces, while the rest just looked confused. What could an Ancient Grecian wizard have to do with Voldemort?

Hermione explained. "He was one of the most powerful and influential Dark wizards in history. It's said that he hatched the first basilisk. What is certain is that he created the first Horcrux. A Horcrux is the most vile and evil piece of magic ever to have been invented."

"Surely not," scoffed Lily Evans. "What about the Unforgivable Curses?" she huffed, looking around expecting agreement and was surprised not to receive it. While it was clear that many present did not know what a Horcrux was, those few who did looked sickened.

"Lily, you don't know what a Horcrux is," said Sirius weakly. "Don't dismiss Miss Pevensie's description of it."

"And you do know what it is?" she asked, incredulous that the careless young man who was none too diligent with his studies would know something that she did not. Hermione, who did not particularly like what little she had seen so far of Lily Evans, was not impressed by this similarity between Lily and herself. _'At least I've grown out of that attitude,'_ she consoled herself. _'It's amazing what fighting a war will do for your sense of priorities.'_

"I'm a Black, Evans. We're taught Dark magic in our cradles," said Sirius wearily.

Lily looked inquiringly towards Andromeda Tonks, who nodded. "Why do you think Sirius and I both got out?" she asked the other girl baldly.

"Hem, hem," Hermione interrupted, cringing internally as the sound reminded her of the odious Dolores Umbridge. When the attention was back on her, she continued. "A Horcrux is a vessel containing part of your soul. Another description for a Horcrux is a soul anchor, because it anchors your soul to this spiritual plane, preventing you from dying. I don't know how they're made—nor do I want to—but I do know that it requires both murder and the foulest and most obscene of rituals. Killing someone by use of the Killing Curse fractures your soul, thus allowing you, with the aid of this ritual, to break off a piece of your soul to store in the Horcrux."

"And Riddle made one of these Horcruxes?" asked Augusta Longbottom bleakly.

"No," replied Hermione, equally bleakly. "He made seven of them." The silence in the room was absolute, as everyone tried to comprehend the horror of what Riddle had done.

Hermione nervously cleared her throat again and continued. "He actually only meant to make six," she commented.

"Oh, well. That makes it all so much better then," interrupted Sirius sarcastically and Hermione grinned appreciatively at him.

"That was the other reason the Headmaster brought back Professor Slughorn and gave Professor Snape the Defence position. Professor Slughorn had been Tom Riddle's Head of House and had given Riddle information about Horcruxes when asked; Professor Dumbledore needed to find out exactly what Professor Slughorn had told Riddle—Slughorn had only handed over a doctored memory when Dumbledore asked—and the Headmaster hoped to use Slughorn's fondness for Lily to persuade him to give Harry the full and complete memory," Hermione continued.

"Anyway, Riddle was obsessed with the magical properties of the number seven and so decided to split his soul into that most magical of numbers, creating six Horcruxes and retaining his original soul piece in his body. Seven pieces of soul. The extra piece, as it were, was an accident, although we didn't find out about it until much later. Professor Dumbledore's purpose in sharing bits of Riddle's life with Harry was to help him try and work out what the Horcruxes were and where they might be hidden. The Headmaster found one of them during the summer between our fifth and sixth years. It was a ring, which was regarded as the ring of Slytherin. It actually had an older origin, though, one which Riddle didn't know about, and when Professor Dumbledore realised exactly what it was, he couldn't resist putting it on. Unfortunately, it was badly cursed and I can imagine Riddle adding Compulsion Charms to ensure that anyone stealing the Horcrux would put the ring on and so succumb to the curse. Professor Snape helped the Headmaster but he couldn't cure the curse, only slow it down. Professor Dumbledore, knowing that he was facing a very unpleasant death, and being aware of Draco's mission, made Professor Snape promise to kill him instead of Draco. He felt Draco's soul was worth saving but didn't seem to care too much about Professor Snape's."

Hermione glared disapprovingly at Professor Dumbledore and then sighed. "Of course, it wasn't as straightforward as that. Professor Dumbledore was the only wizard Riddle ever feared and he was the only thing preventing Riddle from taking over. With Professor Dumbledore's death, things would become very bleak indeed. Professor Snape killing the Headmaster put him high up in Riddle's ranks and that was rather important because after the Ministry fell, Riddle gave Professor Snape Hogwarts, making him Headmaster. The other alternative would have been Bellatrix Lestrange, I believe, and that crazy bitch would have tortured all the students into insanity, if not killed them all, within a matter of weeks. Probably less. Things were bad enough as they were, without that. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not going to show you much about our sixth year, except for the events at the end of the year. Lady Hogwarts, please could you show what happened when Professor Dumbledore and Harry went after the Horcrux in the cave, and also the events back here in Hogwarts that night."

Lady Hogwarts did as Hermione requested and showed the events of that night, interspersing what happened in the cave with events back at the school, concluding with the death of Albus Dumbledore. Everyone watched intently and there was none of the banter that had been previous during the earlier parts of the story.

Hermione wiped away the tears that were flowing silently down her cheeks. "Professor Dumbledore was _not_ begging for his life. He was reminding Professor Snape of his promise to complete Draco's task and grant him a quick death. Unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore had bound Professor Snape to secrecy and left nothing behind to let the Order know that he had planned his death with Professor Snape, that it was assisted suicide rather than murder. After that, I think Professor Snape became the most hated man in the wizarding world, after Riddle, of course."

"Somehow, I don't think I was any too popular even beforehand," commented Severus, with a surprising show of humour. His normally sallow cheeks were very pale, probably due to the shock of what he had just seen. Merely hearing that you had gone to the Dark and actually witnessing yourself killing someone as revered as Albus Dumbledore were two very different things.

Sirius and James started up angrily at Severus' joke and Hermione's wand was instantly in her hand. "Don't you dare!" she warned the two Marauders. "I told you that this was arranged by Professor Dumbledore. Now, sit down and leave Mr Snape alone," she instructed them, an unmistakeable note of menace in her voice.

"Do as she says," said Charlus wearily. "I guarantee you can't stand up to Miss Pevensie in a fight. What we've seen is only the beginning, isn't it, Miss Pevensie?"

She nodded. "It gets much, much worse. I'm tempted just to jump ahead to how we can end this war and skip over the next year but I think you all need to see just how bad it gets."

A number of people looked uneasy at the thought of seeing even worse scenes than they already had until now. Molly Weasley, looking at those who were still in school, looked to be about to object but Arthur intervened. Hermione had noticed over the years that despite the ridicule the Malfoys and their ilk made of Arthur Weasley, he actually commanded a lot of respect—perhaps the reason why the Malfoys were so determined to disparage him, in an effort to lessen his influence.

"If Miss Pevensie can bring herself to watch this after having already lived through it, then I think we can all watch it too," Arthur said firmly and nodded at Hermione, who nodded back gratefully and addressed the room.

"First of all, I'm going to list the Horcruxes," she decided. "The first created was his childhood diary. Riddle murdered Myrtle to make that Horcrux; he was seventeen at the time. The second created was the ring, which Riddle stole from his grandfather. Riddle murdered his father and grandparents to create that Horcrux and framed his uncle for the murder; it was not long after the murder of Myrtle. I'm not sure about the exact order and all the murders for the next three. Those are Slytherin's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem."

"He can't have used the diadem, it's been missing for centuries," Lily protested, looking superior.

Hermione sighed. "The Grey Lady, the Ravenclaw ghost, is actually Helena Ravenclaw, Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter," she began to explain, only to be interrupted by Lily.

"How ridiculous!" Lily scoffed.

"What's ridiculous? And why?" asked Hermione, with exaggerated patience.

"Your claim that the Grey Lady is actually Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, of course," the red-headed witch replied.

"Really? And have you ever actually spoken to the Grey Lady, Miss Evans?" Hermione inquired. The Slytherins in the room all quietly snickered at Hermione's thinly veiled sarcasm, which went right over Lily's head.

"Well, no. She doesn't speak to anyone."

"Actually, she does. Just not to very many people. Especially not after Tom Riddle deceived her. The Grey Lady is indeed Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter. She stole the diadem from her mother and Tom Riddle tricked her into revealing where she had hidden it. He retrieved it after he finished school and turned it into a Horcrux before he returned to Britain to apply for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. While he undoubtedly would have liked the position, I can't imagine he genuinely believed Professor Dumbledore would have given it to him. His application for the position was more of a ruse to get him into Hogwarts so that he could hide the diadem here, after he had turned it into a Horcrux."

"Here?" Professor Flitwick sat up, looking excited.

Hermione nodded but did not elaborate. "The diadem was turned into a Horcrux some time prior to Riddle's job interview in 1956. I don't know who he murdered to create that one. Immediately after school, Riddle had worked for Borgin & Burkes for a time—I think he was using that position to find Founders' items. As an orphan, Riddle regarded Hogwarts as his home and this was reinforced by his discovery that he was a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin. His connection to Hogwarts was very important to Riddle, something which Harry understood, given that he wasn't welcome at the Dursleys and therefore regarded Hogwarts as his home, too. It was Harry who realised that a Horcrux would be hidden here, because of that similarity between him and Riddle, one which I believe Mr Snape shares?"

Snape nodded tersely and Hermione sympathetically did not dwell on the subject any further. "The Smiths are direct descendants of Helga Hufflepuff. Riddle murdered Hepzibah Smith, framing her house elf for it, and stole the cup. He used Madam Smith's murder for the creation of that Horcrux. That was round about 1946. As direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin, his locket had been in the possession of the Gaunts. After Merope Gaunt had been abandoned by the father of her child, she was desperate for money and sold the locket. She was cheated, of course, and wasn't paid nearly its worth. Riddle tracked it down some time over the two or three decades after he left Hogwarts but, like the diadem, I don't know who he murdered to create that Horcrux. The diary, ring, cup, locket and diadem are the only Horcruxes in existence at this time. The next Horcrux was the accidental one. Riddle had gone to Godric's Hollow with the intention of murdering the Potters on Halloween 1980. We believe he also intended to create a Horcrux that night and had begun the ritual to do so prior to arriving in Godric's Hollow. When Riddle lost his body that night, he didn't realise that a piece of his soul, which was very badly fractured and unstable, split off that night and attached itself to the only magical thing in the room, namely Harry. It lodged itself inside Harry's scar, which explains the connection between him and Riddle and also explains why Harry could speak Parseltongue. It wasn't really Harry who could speak it, rather it was Voldemort's soul piece in his scar. Professor Dumbledore realised Harry was a Horcrux but didn't share that information until the last possible moment. Not realising that Harry was a Horcrux, Riddle pursued his intention to create what he thought was the sixth Horcrux, and when opportunity presented itself in 1994, he murdered a witch named Bertha Jorkins to turn his familiar, Nagini, into the last Horcrux."

"How are Horcruxes destroyed?" asked James Potter bleakly.

"How could Riddle make the snake Horcrux if he was a disembodied spirit?" asked Severus Snape at the same time.

"The snake was turned into a Horcrux after Pettigrew rejoined his Master. Pettigrew no doubt assisted with the aspects of the ritual that would have needed a corporeal form to perform, such as the actual murder," Hermione explained to Severus. Turning to James, she added, "The only ways Professor Dumbledore knew of were to destroy the Horcrux with basilisk venom or with Fiendfyre. The Headmaster took a bit of a gamble with the Horcrux in Harry, but I'll come to that later.

"We begin the story of the Horcrux hunt just before Bill Weasley's wedding," Hermione continued and Lady Hogwarts projected the Battle of the Seven Potters, including the return of each team to the Burrow, minus Mad-Eye Moody who had been killed. Lady Hogwarts showed the conversation between the Trio as they tried to plan their getaway and as Hermione explained to the boys how she had comandeered the Headmaster's books regarding Horcruxes. Lady Hogwarts included the delivery of the items bequeathed by Dumbledore to Hermione, Harry and Ron and then skipped to the end of the wedding, with the announcement of the fall of the Ministry, the ensuing panic and Harry, Hermione and Ron's escape.

This was followed by their encounter with Death Eaters on Oxford Street and their arrival at Grimmauld Place, the discovery of the identity of RAB and Kreacher's story exonerating Regulus Black. Sirius, Regulus and Andromeda were all deeply upset when they learned the terrible fate that had befallen Regulus and the three Blacks gathered together to give each other comfort.

"You did a good thing, Regulus," said Hermione quietly. "You betrayed Riddle and you tried to destroy him. Of course, you couldn't have known that was only one of several Horcruxes." Regulus nodded at her, still too stunned to speak.

"After Sirius' death, Mundungus Fletcher, a less than savoury member of the Order, had raided Grimmauld Place and had stolen many items to sell."

"Let him!" said Sirius hoarsely. "There's certainly nothing there I value."

"The only problem with that was that he had also stolen the locket, not knowing it was a Horcrux. Harry sent Kreacher to find Dung and we discovered the locket was in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. Not knowing where she lived, Harry, Ron and I made plans to sneak into the Ministry under the guise of Polyjuice to get the locket from her. My Lady, if you could show what happened?"

Everyone sat in silence, watching as the three children invaded the Ministry. They saw the horror of the Muggleborn Registration and trials, they saw Harry rescue Moody's magical eye, they saw the children snatch the locket and make their getaway, with Yaxley tagging along, and the children apparating away safely from Grimmauld Place.

"We couldn't return to Grimmauld after that," said Hermione sadly. "Professor Dumbledore made it so that when he died all of us who had been let into the secret all became Secret Keepers ourselves. That was what enabled me to take Yaxley through the wards of the house and, once having done that, it was no longer safe for us. Fortunately, I had a wizarding tent in my bag of supplies and we spent the next several months camping, moving from site to site so we wouldn't be found. I put up protective enchantments and Harry took first watch. He dozed off and had a vision from Riddle, who was torturing the wandmaker, Gregorovitch, for information regarding something that had been stolen from him some years before."

"What was it that had been stolen?" asked Kingsley curiously.

Hermione shook her head. "Later," she said. "Harry, Ron and I didn't really have a clue what we were doing after that. We'd focused all our planning until then on the locket. Now we had it, but we didn't know how to destroy it, nor did we know what the other Horcruxes were or where to find them. We spent a long time moving round, desperately trying to find clues that would help us. Harry had insisted we take turns wearing the locket so we wouldn't lose it and it had a bad effect on each of us, making us miserable and depressed—it enhanced any negative emotions we were feeling. We were cold, tired, hungry, worried about everyone we'd left behind, worried about completing our task and worried about what Riddle was doing in the meantime. That all culminated one night…"

Lady Hogwarts showed the conversation the trio overheard between Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, Griphook and another goblin. Everyone watched as Hermione and Harry then questioned Phineas Nigellus' portrait, finally realising that they needed Gryffindor's sword to destroy the Horcruxes. They watched as Ron fought with his friends over the fact that they now had another artefact to obtain, in addition to the Horcruxes, and stormed out.

"Of course that was why the Headmaster had tried to leave the sword to Harry in his will, before the Ministry interfered, but it was just one setback too many for Ron," said Hermione brokenly. "Ron's departure had a strong impact on us. It was so hard anyway and then Ron leaving us… it was devastating. After that, Harry kept waiting for me to leave as well. He never said anything but he knew the burden of destroying Voldemort was on his shoulders and he thought that one day I'd come to my senses and leave too. Of course the fact that I was Undesirable Number Two, a Muggleborn witch who was Harry Potter's best friend and was whose very existence was an affront to the Death Eaters, meant that I couldn't leave but Harry wasn't exactly in any better spirits than I was at that point.

"We spend the next several weeks floundering about," Hermione admitted. "We still didn't know what to do. Harry eventually said that he wanted to go to Godric's Hollow, to his parents' grave. I was hesitant because of the danger but I agreed that it could be valuable to do so. We took our time, planning the visit and taking whatever precautions we could. We stole some hairs from a couple of Muggles and Polyjuiced ourselves."

Lady Hogwarts showed the visit to Godric's Hollow, and Hermione and Harry's narrow escape. "When Nagini attacked Arthur, he nearly died because the wound wouldn't clot or seal. When she attacked Harry, it was easily controlled with Dittany. I think it's because Riddle told Nagini to hold Harry, not kill him. Riddle wanted to kill Harry himself and Nagini was apparently able to control whether or not she released her venom, so she didn't poison him.

"The next significant event was Ron's return, partly because he brought us news but mostly just because he was back. We were always better as a trio. Harry forgave him much more easily than I did but he completed us."

Lady Hogwarts showed Ron's return. Everyone watched as Harry retrieved Gryffindor's sword from the bottom of the lake and Ron saved Harry from drowning. They watched Ron destroy the locket and Hermione's furious reaction when she saw Ron again. They realised from this that Hermione and Ron had feelings for each other and Molly reached over to clasp the girl's hand. Lady Hogwarts jumped around a bit, and showed Ron explaining about the taboo and the trio listening to an edition of the pirate radio station, Potterwatch, run by Lee Jordan, Fred and George Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin. They also watched as the trio visited Xenophilius Lovegood, trying to get more information about the Deathly Hallows, and realising that Luna had been captured.

Hermione swallowed nervously. "Lady Hogwarts will show you the rest without pausing in between for explanations. It was bad enough living through it the first time and I'm not sure I'll be able to carry on watching if we pause for any reason. If you could just save your questions until after it's all over."

At this, the people gathered together in the Room of Requirement looked very apprehensive. What they had seen so far had been bad enough. How much worse could it become?

The horror was absolute as they watched. First Harry breaking the taboo and the trio getting captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. The boys being taken to the dungeon and finding other captives there. They heard Hermione's screams and saw the boys frantically trying to get out of the dungeon to rescue her. Then the view skipped to Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. Hermione, as she had done earlier in her long story, sat with her feet on the edge of the chair and her head buried in her knees. Her fingers were in her ears, as she tried not to watch or listen.

There was a collective sigh of relief when Dobby managed to rescue them all and take them to Shell Cottage. They all watched silently as Harry buried Dobby but smiled when Remus turned up to announce the birth of his son with Nymphadora Tonks, much to both Remus' and Andromeda's surprise and Sirius' glee. James saw this and gave his best friend a swat to the back of his head. This was not the time to tease Remus. From there, they watched as Harry, Ron and Hermione realised that there was a Horcrux in the Lestrange vault in Gringotts and made plans to break in and steal it. There were gasps of admiration when Hermione Polyjuiced herself as the foul woman who had tortured her. Growls emanated from many when Griphook betrayed them but the Marauders and Prewett twins cheered and applauded when the trio escaped on the back of a stolen dragon. It was a much-needed release of tension. Finally, they witnessed Harry realising that Voldemort was checking his Horcruxes.

Lady Hogwarts showed the trio making it to Hogsmeade and being helped by Aberforth Dumbledore. She showed the conversation with their fellow students in the Room of Requirement, as they told of how bad things had been in Hogwarts that year and how Neville, Ginny and Luna had led a rebellion. She showed Harry realising that the Ravenclaw's diadem was a Horcrux and the trio searching for it in the Room of Lost Things, being interrupted by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle and their escape from the Fiendfyre. She showed Ron and Hermione visiting the Chamber of Secrets to retrieve basilisk fangs and destroying Hufflepuff's cup. Finally, she showed the Final Battle, Snape's death, the memories he gave the trio, Harry realising that he was the final Horcrux and that he had to die, Voldemort killing Harry, the young man's meeting with Dumbledore in Kings Cross and then coming back from the dead, Neville killing Nagini, Harry challenging Voldemort and explaining all the pieces of the puzzle to the sociopathic man—exonerating Snape in the process—and then their duel. Lady Hogwarts showed Harry killing Voldemort, only to fall himself immediately after. Molly and Arthur witnessed the decimation of their family. Remus, Andromeda and Ted saw Tonks fall with her husband. They all watched in stunned horror as countless numbers died and Hogwarts itself was destroyed. The scale of the devastation was almost incomprehensible.

When the memories finally faded, Hermione spoke numbly, unaware that tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Hogwarts wasn't rebuilt. There weren't enough people do so, nor were there enough children to attend Hogwarts in any case. Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, St Mungo's, the Ministry… they were all destroyed as well. Most magicals in Britain either died in the war or left Britain as soon as possible afterwards. There were very few magicals remaining in Britain when Lady Hogwarts summoned me so that she could send me back in time. At that point, I don't think that British magical society was ever going to recover. That destruction and devastation is what I'm here to prevent happening, no matter the cost to me personally. Whatever magic demands of me for changing history can't be worse than what I've already lived through."

"There will be no further price to be paid, my champion," Lady Hogwarts assured her. "You have already paid the price, do not fear on that account."

Hermione nodded mutely. Taking a deep breath, she spoke to her shell-shocked companions, many of whom were also silently weeping. Hermione was worn out and emotionally drained by this time but she wanted to complete all she needed to say that night, as she could not face having this carry over to another weekend. It was simply too painful for her to dwell upon her past.

"I know it's very late but I'd like to finish up tonight. There's not much more to say at this time. After the Final Battle, I returned to Grimmauld Place. There was no one left who could attack me. Besides, although I accidentally brought Yaxley through the wards, he wasn't a Secret Keeper himself, so he couldn't take other Death Eaters into Grimmauld Place. He died in the Final Battle, so I knew I was safe there. Not that I actually felt safe, since I didn't own the property and so was unable to access and augment the house's wards. I added some of my own but the main wards were denied me. With nothing else to do, I spent my time reading in Grimmauld's library. There I happened to come across books that most certainly aren't in the Hogwarts library, not even the Restricted Sand that weren't in Professor Dumbledore's collection of Horcrux material. This is where not sharing information and not asking for help is about to bite you in the rear, Headmaster," Hermione said, looking at him severely.

There were a few chuckles at Hermione's description but Dumbledore looked suitably admonished, and the petite witch continued. "In the library of Grimmauld Place, there is a book which describes a ritual to reunite fractured soul pieces into one vessel. Admittedly, the ritual intended the vessel to be the original body, but that isn't actually specified in the ritual—only the word 'vessel' is used. This means that if we have one Horcrux in our possession when we perform the ritual, then that vessel will be the locus and all the soul pieces will be combined within the vessel housing that particular Horcrux. And since Ravenclaw's diadem is here in the Room of Requirement, we have all we need to perform the ritual. It's not a Dark ritual and it won't endanger anyone performing it, although it may exhaust them magically. The only thing I'm not sure of is whether or not the soul remaining within Voldemort himself will join the pieces in the Horcrux. It'll fight to stay within his body but he'll be so weakened by the loss of the rest of his soul that there's a chance it may be drawn out of his body. Even if it remains within him, he'll be mortal at that point and he'll be weakened from the fight to retain hold of that final soul piece. If we strike immediately after completing the ritual, we can end this war once and for all."

Dumbledore gaped at the petite witch. Deep down in the back of her mind, Hermione was amused to see the Headmaster dumbfounded. "If you had shared information about the Horcruxes, this information might have been found when it could actually have been useful. Sirius was trapped inside Grimmauld Place, extremely frustrated because he was unable to do anything to help fight the war. You could have set him to doing research in the Black library at Grimmauld Place. It would have given him a purpose and, more importantly, he would have found the information about the ritual, so that you wouldn't have been cursed by that ring, and Harry wouldn't have needed to sacrifice himself. The war would have been over almost before it began and all the death and destruction could have been avoided. Headmaster, I've already said this, but I repeat: you are a very wise and powerful wizard but you're not infallible. You need to learn to share information with those you trust instead of hoarding it to yourself," she chided and the elderly wizard nodded in acknowledgement. Hermione could see that he had been affected by all he had heard and seen this weekend; it just remained to see if this would change the Headmaster's future behaviour.

"The ritual should take place here in Hogwarts," Hermione explained. "The castle was built at the point where two very powerful ley lines, one running north to south and the other running east to west, cross. The ambient magic in the atmosphere here is enormous and we should perform the ritual at the point where those two ley lines intersect. The ritual requires the traditional elements: earth, air, fire, water and spirit. Hufflepuff embodies earth, Ravenclaw embodies air, Gryffindor fire and Slytherin water. The Heads of House of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor should therefore represent their elements in the ritual. For water, it would be better if Mr Snape represents Slytherin. As I said earlier, Professor Slughorn helped Riddle learn about Horcruxes and then tried to lie about it; he came back to Hogwarts in my sixth year not because he wanted to do the right thing, but because he was scared and thought he would be safer here. Professor… Mr Snape is the quintessential Slytherin and Lady Hogwarts has already expressed her desire that he should represent Slytherin in this ritual instead of Professor Slughorn. As for spirit, that will be represented by myself."

"I think perhaps I should represent spirit, Miss Pevensie. After all, as Headmaster of this institution, I represent all the Houses," said Professor Dumbledore genially.

"Except that you don't, do you, Headmaster? Otherwise Mr Snape wouldn't have suffered so much over the past six years," Hermione said pointedly, her eyes flashing with barely concealed anger, and the Headmaster had the grace to look ashamed. "According to Lady Hogwarts and the Sorting Hat," Hermione continued more benignly, "although I was sorted into Ravenclaw, I actually epitomise all the Houses, so I can easily represent spirit. Don't forget we might need to go to battle immediately after the ritual and while you can command forces to follow you, Headmaster, I cannot. I'm an unknown quantity to all outside this room, and still young, meaning that no one would follow me. Whoever participates in this ritual will most likely be too magically exhausted to fight. Therefore, it's best that I perform the ritual and you lead our forces."

There were various nods of agreement around the room. Even Dumbledore could not argue with Hermione's reasoning. "When should this ritual take place?" the elderly wizard asked. "We'll need time to prepare the attack—we need to know where Voldemort will be and round up our forces."

"Samhain would be best but with the school in session, that isn't practical. Send all the students home for the winter holidays—if need be, Lady Hogwarts and I will create some kind of accident to justify your having to close the school during that period—and we can perform the ritual on the winter solstice. Do you think that will give enough time to prepare?" Hermione asked, looking primarily at Dumbledore and the various Aurors. They all exchanged looks and turned back to the bushy-haired witch.

"We'll aim for the solstice," they agreed.

With that, Hermione called the meeting to an end. "I'll share the details of the ritual at a later date, we still have almost four months yet," she declared firmly. Pausing only to teach everyone her super charged Stupefy spell and its counter-spell—with strict instructions to the Marauders not to abuse its use—and to add Dumbledore and Amelia Bones as Secret Keepers for the spell, the weary young witch slipped off to her rooms, where she fell into an exhausted sleep, too tired even to dream.

.o.O.o.

Hermione spent the next few weeks resitting her OWLs and sitting her NEWTs, all under the name of Maia Pevensie, receiving Outstandings in them all, much to her delight. She had discussed with Professors Dumbledore, Flitwick and McGonagall the fact that the Hogwarts curriculum was more advanced in her time and they all agreed she should not give away how much more advanced than the average student she was, lest she bring unwanted attention to herself. They drilled her on her practicals to ensure that she would have tight control of her magic during her exams. However, despite holding back somewhat in her exams, the young witch's results still rivalled those of Albus Dumbledore himself.

Hermione also found the time to have the promised duel with Alastor Moody. She was summoned one day to the Room of Requirement, to find Moody, Amelia Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Prewett twins, Charlus Potter, Augusta Longbottom, Professors Dumbledore, Flitwick, McGonagall and Sprout, the Marauders, Frank Longbottom and his fiancée, Alice Wood, Lily Evans, Severus Snape and Regulus Black all in attendance.

The duel began with Hermione facing Moody and the Prewetts. The plan was that anyone Hermione knocked out of the duel would be replaced by one of the other adults watching: Amelia, Kingsley, Augusta, Minerva or Filius. Moody had taken her challenge to duel him with two others at the same time as a personal insult and was determined to test Hermione to the max. Every single person she would be duelling was a formidable opponent, but half of them did not yet have the battle experience of the witch from the future; Hermione also had the additional advantage of knowing many spells that had not yet been created in 1977. It was therefore deemed that although Hermione would be facing uneven odds, the duel was not unfair. Only Professors Dumbledore and Sprout and Charlus Potter had declined to participate in the duel, and after all they had witnessed when Hermione shared her story with them, no one was willing to allow the students to duel with the battle-hardened warrior she clearly was. By the time Professor Dumbledore called an end to the bout, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Amelia Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Minerva McGonagall had all been knocked out of the duel by the petite, young witch. It had taken a concerted effort by Alastor Moody, Filius Flitwick and Augusta Longbottom to overpower Hermione. The students, all of whom had been watching in star-struck awe, applauded loudly at the end of the match and Hermione bowed tiredly.

"I apologise for misjudging you, girlie," said Moody, striding over to shake Hermione's hand. "I didn't think you'd be able to duel Death Eaters but you've proved me wrong. I'd be glad to have you beside me in a fight, any time."

"That's quite a compliment," said Amelia Bones drily, grinning at Hermione. The woman who had been Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Hermione's past looked young and girlish, and the younger woman suddenly realised with a startled jolt that some of the adults she had previously looked up to when she was a child were now her contemporaries, or nearly so. Amelia and Kingsley were not much older than she in this timeline¹.

"I know," agreed Hermione impishly. "I'm honoured, Auror Moody," she said sincerely, and he harrumphed and stomped away in embarrassment, as Hermione and Amelia shared an amused look.

Hermione soon settled in again at Hogwarts. Between her apprenticeship and planning the upcoming ritual with Dumbledore, she was very busy. Sirius and Regulus had reconnected, and Hermione brokered peace between the Marauders and Severus Snape. Admittedly, initially it was more because the remaining Marauders were scared of her temper and her ability with a wand, but while they would never be best friends, with time the truce became genuine. The Marauders could not deny that although the Severus Snape of Hermione's original timeline might have been a deeply unpleasant, bad-tempered, bitter man, Severus truly was a better person than they. Hermione had several long talks with the Marauders and explained just exactly what Severus Snape had done for the cause and how much he had suffered along the way. In face of that, and knowing that he had done all he could to protect Harry, they could not continue their grudge against him. Besides, they had all concluded that Maia Pevensie was one scary witch, and she had threatened to hex the living daylights out of them if they did not call a truce!

Hermione also grew close to Frank and Alice. In her previous timeline, Ginny Weasley had been Hermione's closest female friend, but that was due more to circumstances throwing them together than because they had much in common. Alice Wood and Marsali McGonagall were both women Hermione could relate to and they soon became her best friends. Hermione's first opinion of Lily, however, did not change. As far as Hermione was concerned, Lily Evans was superficial, shallow, swollen-headed and vain, and Hermione could not understand how she had come to be so revered. Neither did Hermione understand why Lily was appointed Head Girl. _'Even if Dumbledore didn't want to appoint Marsali as Head Girl in case he'd be accused of favouritism because she's Professor McGonagall's niece, Alice would have been an excellent Head Girl, and would be far more popular,'_ Hermione grouched to herself. The only justifiable reason Hermione could conceive of for Lily's appointment was the other girl's grades. _'Unless Dumbledore's trying to make a political statement by appointing a Muggleborn as Head Girl,'_ she considered.

The Charms Apprentice also took the opportunity to have a quiet word with Severus Snape one day. Once Hermione and Dumbledore had worked out the details of the ritual, they had to spend time with the representatives of each House who would be participating. It was easy for Dumbledore to rehearse with Professors Sprout, McGonagall and Flitwick but it would be too obvious if the Headmaster spent that much time with Severus, and so Hermione had offered to rehearse with the young man instead and, over time, they became friends. Severus was very grateful for Hermione's championship of him, and was honoured by her belief in him.

"Severus, there's something I need to say to you and there's no tactful way to say it, so I'm just going to come out with it," the curly-haired witch began.

"That sounds ominous," he commented, his black eyes gleaming with humour.

"Not ominous, merely uncomfortable and possibly embarrassing for you," she replied.

Severus went still. He had found it deeply embarrassing when Hermione had shared so much about him while she told the Order her story, but in the end it had been for the best, as it had changed many people's opinions of him. Severus had even received apologies from Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall for not reining in the Marauders more. After a moment, he nodded curtly, mentally gearing himself up for whatever Hermione was about to spring on him.

"I believe that in my previous timeline your apprenticeship was paid for by Lucius Malfoy, under Riddle's orders. It's possible that Dumbledore may feel guilty enough over his actions regarding you to offer to waive the apprenticeship fees if you undertake your apprenticeship with Slughorn, but I don't want to see you indebted to Dumbledore again. I'm willing to pay your fees for you to apprentice with Slughorn, or another Master, if you prefer. It isn't charity," she hastened to add when she saw Severus bristling. "You're a brilliant Potioneer and it would be to Britain's detriment if you didn't attain your Mastery. Besides, I owe you for all you did to protect me during my childhood—you stood between me and a transformed werewolf! You can regard it as thanks for that, or it can be as a loan if you prefer—although I insist on the loan being interest-free. Guilt free, too! I don't want you to feel indebted to me because of this. You can repay me once you've completed your Mastery studies. Anyway, think about it. I want you to have more options than just Dumbledore."

"Thank you," Severus said gruffly. "I'll think about it and let you know."

"There's no rush," Hermione assured him easily. "Take as long as you like to consider it; my offer will still stand." Hermione left it at that. There was no point in embarrassing the man any further; she just hoped Severus would take her up on her offer because she truly did not want to see him beholden to Albus Dumbledore.

Shortly after that, Hermione paid a visit to the Burrow, which left her feeling torn. On the one hand, the familiar sense of homecoming was very welcome but, on the other hand, it just emphasised what she had lost by leaving her old life. Bill, who was nine years older than her and had been her protective older brother, was approaching seven years old in this timeline; Charlie was not yet five and Percy was a baby of a year old.

While there, Hermione discussed Ron with Molly. Although it would be two and a half years before the youngest Weasley boy would be born, Molly had brought up the subject.

"Ron was obsessed by two things: his first love was Quidditch and his second love was chess. Unfortunately, unlike Charlie, the twins and Ginny, Ron was only a mediocre Quidditch player—admittedly, in part because of his nerves—but he was an absolute genius at chess. He outclassed all his siblings at that; Ron was simply unbeatable. Did you know that in the Muggle world, there are chess rankings, not just up to Master but to Grand Master? I realise that there isn't a wizarding Mastery of Chess, but there's no reason why Hogwarts can't introduce a chess championship. After all, Quidditch only involves seven students from each House, but anyone who wanted could enter a chess competition. I fully intend to suggest that to Albus, as not only would it be a good way to get the students from different Houses interacting more, but inter-school Quidditch and chess competitions will be far safer than resurrecting that damned Triwizard Tournament!

"Molly, you wanted the boys to follow Arthur into the Ministry—possibly because you felt it would be a more stable and respectable career—but the twins actually made an enormous success of their joke shop, and I think Ron could do equally as well with a chess and games shop. There are many other strategy games in the Muggle world, which I think would also appeal to Ron, so he could sell them in his shop as well. Ron truly is exceptional at chess, and a career where he'd be doing something he enjoys and at which he can shine, would mean a lot to him. He'll just need to be encouraged in that direction," Hermione suggested². "Oh, and if Ron wants to enchant his own chess sets or other games, he'll also need to be encouraged to take Ancient Runes at school, instead of Divination! He'll need both Ancient Runes and Charms, but Charms is a core subject so he'll be taking that anyway. Ron wasn't the most academic of people but if he can see that taking Ancient Runes has a practical purpose with regard to his career plans, then he'll be more inclined to take that subject."

Molly looked very thoughtful at this. There was a good deal of sense in what Hermione had said, especially her idea for an alternative to the Triwizard Tournament. Molly had no desire to see students competing in the tasks she had witnessed in Hermione's memories. While opening their own businesses was not a career Molly had envisaged for her sons, the idea definitely had merit. "Thank you, Maia," she said gratefully. "I don't want Ron to feel inferior, so I'll do my best to encourage his chess skills if it'll help his self-esteem issues."

Hermione smiled ruefully at Molly. "Ron and Harry were very important to me. It'll be strange to be so much older than them, but I'll do whatever I can for them."

"And for your younger self?"

"I really hope she'll be their friend again," Hermione agreed. "Once Riddle has been safely dealt with, I'm going to contact Granny. She's a Squib, so I won't be breaking the Statute of Secrecy. When my younger self starts doing accidental magic, she can freely explain it to my parents. I'll ask her to let me know once she's told them, and then I can take my parents and my younger self under my wing."

"Well, you'll be welcome to bring them to the Burrow at anytime," Molly smiled.

"Thank you," said Hermione. "There's one other thing…"

"Yes?" Molly prompted as Hermione hesitated.

"Err… is Xenophilius Lovegood married yet? I know he has a daughter, Luna, in the same year as Ginny, and that the Lovegoods lived near here but I don't know when Xeno and Pandora actually married."

"I'm not sure," Molly pondered. "I'll ask Arthur; perhaps he'll know. May I ask why you want to know? Is it to do with the war?"

"No, it's something else altogether. Pandora Lovegood died in an accident when Luna was nine. Mrs Lovegood experimented with spell-crafting and one of her experiments went wrong. Luna was with her mother when she died—she witnessed the accident. Xeno and Luna were both somewhat eccentric and Luna suffered from a fair amount of bullying at Hogwarts because of that. The problem is that I don't know when the accident actually happened, so I don't think I'll be able to prevent it. If anything should happen to Mrs Lovegood, would you mind keeping an eye on Luna and help her out? I'll do it myself if I can but I don't know where I'll be at that point. You're nearby, though. Luna badly needed a mother figure, even if only to help her dress like the other girls, and I can't think of anyone better than you."

Molly teared up at that compliment. "Thank you, Maia. I'll do my best to be there for her if need be," she promised.

Despite some heavy and emotional subject matter, Hermione spent a very enjoyable afternoon and evening entertaining the children and chatting to Molly and Arthur, grateful for the opportunity to get away from the castle and the war plans for a while. Although she knew it would soon be over, the brown haired witch had been fighting for a long time and was very weary of war. Fortunately, however, Hermione's apprenticeship was a good distraction. The young Charms apprentice had always liked Filius Flitwick and had respected his abilities as a teacher. As his apprentice, Hermione was getting to know the Charms Master on a different level and her knowledge and skill were improving by leaps and bounds. Although Hermione still missed the people she had lost from her previous timeline, all-in-all, she was happy and looking forward to the future; she could not remember the last time she had felt so optimistic.

.o.O.o.

¹ We don't actually know Amelia's age but her niece, Susan, is in Hermione's year in Hogwarts. The Marauders, Lily etc were all born between 1 September 1959 and 31 August 1960. Assuming Susan's parents are close in age to the Marauders _et al_, then her parents were most likely born in the late 1950s—probably not after that, given that Lily and James were only twenty when Harry was born. I've already made Amelia older than the Marauders _et al_, since she has already finished school and is working in the DMLE; so there won't be an enormous age gap between Amelia and Susan's father, I'm going to make Amelia the same age as Sian Thomas, who played her in the films. Sian Thomas was born in September 1953, meaning that when this story takes place Amelia will be 24. Hermione is nineteen at this point, and very mature and world-weary for her age, so she could easily form a friendship with Amelia—besides, five years between Amelia's and Hermione's ages isn't so great.

² I know I used this idea in my story _Moving On_, but I truly feel that being encouraged to develop his biggest talent, one where he's not in his brothers' shadows, would have done an enormous amount for Ron's self-esteem.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:**

» ᴾᴾ_Parseltongue_ᴾᴾ

» The response I've received to this story has been amazing. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

.o.O.o.

**CHAPTER 7**

Finally the day had come. Peter Pettigrew had been interrogated under Veritaserum and had provided a wealth of information. The traitor to the Light had made it very clear that the Dark Mark could not be taken under the Imperius Curse. Pettigrew had also admitted what he had done in the Dark Lord's service. That, and most especially what he had done to be awarded the Dark Mark, meant that if he survived the ritual, he was heading for a lifetime in Azkaban at the very least and, quite possibly, a Dementor's Kiss. Pettigrew had also provided further names of Death Eaters to add to those Hermione had provided. Death Eaters were not supposed to know who each other was but, like the rat he was, Wormtail had snooped around to gain whatever useful information on his fellow Death Eaters he could find. Wormtail had also explained that while he did not know where the Dark Lord would be at any given time, Voldemort was always at one of five specific locations and those locations were discreetly put under surveillance.

Towards the end of the winter term, Hermione, with the help of Lady Hogwarts and the castle, created a simulation of a bad potions explosion. With this, it was required that all staff and students return home for the holidays while 'repairs' could be undertaken. Arrangements were made for those who were unable to go home to go with friends. Hermione went to the Burrow and Severus, not wanting to return to his home in Spinner's End, had been invited by Frank to Longbottom Manor. The Slytherin's relationship with the Marauders was still shaky, but he and Frank did not have the antagonistic history that Severus shared with the Marauders, and so Severus and Frank had begun to form a genuine friendship. Severus, Frank and Alice duelled each other regularly in the Room of Requirement, more often than not together with Hermione, in order to improve their reflexes, and their defensive and offensive skills. Frank and Alice still wanted to become Aurors and this training was standing them in good stead. Frank had invited Sirius and James to join them, knowing the two boys also wanted to become Aurors, but was privately grateful when they refused—he did not want to invite them to throw spells at Severus.

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, Severus flooed to Headmaster Dumbledore's office from Longbottom Manor, together with the Longbottoms. While the Founders of Hogwarts had chosen to build the castle where two powerful ley lines met, they had wisely decided not to situate the castle right on top of the covergence. This meant that rituals could take place at the precise point without the resultant power surge reducing the castle to rubble. The ritual was to take place in a walled and specially warded courtyard, which was at the end of a tunnel accessible only from the Headmaster's tower. Only the Headmaster and Deputy Head knew where the single entrance to this tunnel was. While the ritual was taking place, the Order of the Phoenix would assemble in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, ready to take the fight to Voldemort as soon as the ritual was complete. It appeared that Voldemort would be imposing his own warped brand of festivities on Malfoy Manor, but all five locations were under watch, just in case the Dark Lord should leave the Manor. Kingsley, an Auror who was a member of the Order and therefore knew what was happening, was in charge of the team watching Malfoy Manor, while Amelia and Moody awaited the results of the ritual to activate the rest of the Auror Corps.

The Headmaster showed Hermione, Pomona, Flilus, Minerva and Severus into the warded courtyard. Despite the bitter cold, the five participants in the ritual were all barefoot and dressed in simple, natural linen shifts. There was a gutter running in a circle around the courtyard, incorporated into the paving stones when the courtyard had first been built. Indented bowls were built into the gutter at each compass point, with further gutters running from each to a fifth bowl at the centre of the circle. Hermione stepped over the gutter to the pedestal and placed the diadem in the central bowl, while the other four positioned themselves on the outer edge of the gutter, at the appropriate compass points.

"I call upon the Spirits of the North: the Earth, the New Moon, the Winter and Midnight," Pomona intoned as she scattered earth in the bowl in front her.

"I call upon the Spirits of the South: the Fire, the Full Moon, the Summer and the Noon," Minerva chanted in turn, igniting a fire in her bowl.

"I call upon the Spirits of the East: the Air, the Waxing Moon, the Spring and the Sunrise," Filius continued, burning incense in his bowl.

"I call upon the Spirits of the West: the Water, the Waning Moon, the Autumn and the Sunset," Severus completed the invocation by casting a silent Aguamenti and filling his bowl with water.

The four of them then recited together, "I do summon and call you forth to witness my rites and to guard this circle."

With that, a pure, bright, white light shot out from each bowl, streaming around the gutter to link each element. Four shimmery, Patronus-like figures then came into being: a badger standing next to Pomona, an eagle hovering over Filius' head, a lion sitting beside Minerva and a snake curling around Severus' feet. With that indication that the circle had been successfully cast, it was now Hermione's turn to take her part in the ritual.

"I call upon the Spirit, the Bridge between the Physical and the Celestial Realms, the Bridge between the Physical and the Spiritual, the Bridge between Body and Soul. We seek your Intervention. We seek your Judgement. We seek your Justice. We seek your Retribution. We beseech you to reunite into this vessel, the shattered soul which has willingly, zealously and arrogantly been tainted and corrupted by evil. We beseech you to pass sentence upon it and upon those linked to it by magic."

When Hermione finished her invocation, she was joined by the Patronus-like representation of Lady Hogwarts. Winds began to swirl around them, while thunder and lightening cracked above their heads. The five participants in the ritual stood firm, all pointing their wands at the diadem and focusing their magic upon it. Suddenly streams of black mist came shooting through the air towards them and, shrieking with an eldritch anger, were pulled into the diadem. Counting them, Hermione realised that they were the soul shards from the diary, ring, locket and cup and that, as she had feared, the remaining piece of soul within Voldemort's body had fought against the summons. The expenditure of magic in the ritual was great and after the arrival of these four soul pieces, the other four participants in the ritual all began to falter. Hermione could feel herself weakening too, but was determined to finish this once and for all and therefore stayed focused, as the soul piece within Voldemort himself had not yet arrived. She poured more magic into the ritual, sweat beading on her forehead with the effort, until finally a fifth piece of mist came screaming along and plummeted towards the diadem. At that, the weary participants roused themselves enough to complete the ritual.

_"Fire smite thee,"_ intoned Minerva.  
><em>"Air blight thee,"<em> continued Filius.  
><em>"Water blind thee,"<em> added Severus.  
><em>"Earth bind thee,"<em> finished Pomona.¹

"I commend thy soul and that of those linked to it by Magic to her judgement and sentencing," Hermione's voice rang out resolutely.

It was that last plea that had caused those involved to balk when they first heard the full details of the ritual. It was clear that not only was Voldemort being judged but so were all those who had taken the Dark Mark. Even executing Voldemort and his Death Eaters seemed more merciful than condemning their souls. Hermione and Lady Hogwarts, however, had both been adamant. This was the true reason why it was necessary that Hermione represent Spirit instead of the Headmaster. With his tendency to give second chances _ad infinitum_, Albus would never have been able to bring himself to condemn so many. Having seen the future, having lived through it, Hermione understood far better than Dumbledore that the innocent should not be sacrificed for the sake of evil.

"We're not murdering them, nor are _we_ condemning their souls. _Magic_ is judging them. If there are any Death Eaters who are truly remorseful and repentant, or who are even capable of such, magic will know and will take that into account," Hermione had told Dumbldore firmly and he had reluctantly acquiesced.

After one final push from Hermione, the white light linking the four elements shot into the centre of the circle and encased the diadem. The light flared brightly—too bright to look at and the five people standing in the courtyard all screwed their eyes shut in response. A dense black mist, comprised of all the reunited soul shards, rose above them, before exploding into nothingness. The Patronus-like lion, badger, snake and eagle all roared, grunted, hissed and cawed in unison, giving testament to what had taken place. With a final flare, the light was extinguished and the participants in the ritual all sagged with exhaustion. Although those in authority would need to see Tom Riddle's body before they would be absolutely certain of the outcome of the ritual, nevertheless, Hermione knew deep within her that Voldemort was no more.

"You have done well," spoke Lady Hogwarts. "Tom Riddle has been judged and condemned. His soul has been destroyed."

"And the marked Death Eaters?" asked Hermione wearily.

"I know not," admitted Lady Hogwarts.

Fortunately, it would not be long until that question would be answered. Peter Pettigrew had been brought to the Great Hall, with magic inhibiting cuffs on his wrists to prevent him from transforming into his animagus form and escaping, and would provide the answer. With a quick scourgify to clean the ritual area, the five participants in the ritual trudged back to the Headmaster's office, whence they made their way to the Great Hall. There they saw people crowding around the fallen form of Peter Pettigrew.

"Is he?" asked Minerva warily.

"Dead," confirmed Poppy.

Hermione collapsed onto a bench and Ditsy popped up with a Pepperup Potion for the tired girl. "All five soul pieces, including the one that was within Voldemort, came to join the piece in the diadem," Hermione wearily informed the assembled Order members and sympathisers. "They were all destroyed completely. I wasn't sure if Voldemort would be left a souless husk, like one who has been Kissed by a Dementor but if Peter has died, I would imagine that Voldemort has too. He would have been the conduit to Peter and the other Death Eaters—he couldn't have survived if they didn't."

Dumbledore nodded and sent off his Patronus. "The team watching Malfoy Manor will go in and check," he said. This team was all Aurors and they had a warrant allowing them to demand entry.

There was no chatter as they all sat tensely waiting. Eventually, a lynx Patronus came flying in and spoke in Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice. "Voldemort is dead, as are Lucius Malfoy and a number of other Marked Death Eaters who were at Malfoy Manor tonight."

Everyone gathered in the Great Hall sagged with relief. "Well, that was anti-climactic," joked Sirius as the tension bled from him.

Shaking his head at the irrepressible boy, Dumbledore spoke. "I suspect that it will not be so anti-climactic once the news of the deaths of so many is broken. We shall have a busy few days ahead with the clean-up."

"Actually," said Amelia. "We're sending teams of Aurors tonight to the home of every Death Eater we know about, to collect the bodies. We don't want the reason for their deaths to be brushed under the carpet. It's important that everyone knows these people all died because Voldemort tied their magic and their life-force to him. In the future, perhaps it will make people think twice before tying themselves to another in such a manner."

Dumbledore nodded as Amelia, Moody and the Prewett twins strode out. "Thank you all for coming here tonight and for being prepared to fight, should it have been necessary," he said, looking round at the people assembled. "I imagine many of us will have a busy time of it in the next few days but I hope you will all be able to enjoy your festive break nonetheless."

With that dismissal, the members of the Order began to make their way home. Molly and Arthur paused by Hermione, who was half asleep. She had used more energy and magic than the other participants in the ritual and she was exhausted.

"I think I'll stay in my chambers here tonight and come back to the Burrow tomorrow," Hermione said to the kindly couple. "I don't seem to have the energy to move right now."

"That's all right," said Molly, patting Hermione's shoulder. "You're welcome whenever you want to come."

As Hermione nodded with a weary smile, Ditsy popped back. "Mistress needs to go to bed," the little elf said firmly, to the amusement of the few people still remaining. Ditsy popped Hermione away to her rooms and with a snap of the little elf's fingers, Hermione was in bed, dressed in her pyjamas. Hermione was asleep even before Ditsy had popped away.

.o.O.o.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open and she stretched lazily. With a yawn, she gazed round the room, puzzled as to why she was in her bedroom in Hogwarts instead of at the Burrow. Suddenly the petite witch sat bolt upright as she remembered what had happened the previous night.

_'Merlin! We did it! Voldemort's gone!'_ With that, the excited witch tumbled out of bed, eager for news.

Entering her sitting room at a run, Hermione skidded to a stop at the sight of her owl, Charis, sitting on her perch, having deposited Hermione's copy of the _Daily Prophet_ on the small dining table in Hermione's rooms.

"Thank you, Charis!" Hermione exclaimed, giving the pretty owl a gentle rub on her head. Snatching up the _Daily Prophet_, Hermione unrolled it and looked at the front page. Not surprisingly, the newpaperled with the multitude of Deaths. Scanning the list of the dead, Hermoine suddenly realised that Pureblood society had been changed beyond all recognition; she had been so focused on what needed to be done to end the war that she had not previously considered this consequence. Many of the people she had been at school with would now not be born, as their fathers had all died before their children could be conceived. This would affect Fred and George Weasley's school year, down to her own and beyond. On the other hand, there were many in the previous timeline who had been killed by the Death Eaters, either together with their entire families including their children, or else before they could even have children. The children of the families that had been saved by their actions the previous night would now take the place of those who would not be born to the Dark families, such as Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. Her younger self would be attending a very different Hogwarts to the one she had attended. Harry and Neville would now grow up with their parents, and might even have siblings.

The furore over the sudden deaths of so many prominent citizens carried on for several weeks. As Hermione had privately hoped, even Barty Crouch Jr was included in the list of the dead. Although still at school and only just of age, he had taken the Dark Mark as soon as he left Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. Severus Snape and Regulus Black were the only ones to avoid the carnage, because Hermione had arrived in this era in sufficient time to prevent their taking the Mark. Even better, as far as Hermione was concerned, Bellatrix Lestrange was amongst the dead; now Hermione would never again have to face the insane and sadistic witch who had tortured her.

Amelia Bones, who was making quite an impact in the DMLE, had done as she had promised and had made sure the wizarding world was aware that the reason for the deaths of so many was that they had chosen to tie themselves to a man who made sure that if he died, his followers would all die with him. That gave many of Voldemort's unMarked sympathisers pause, as they realised just how close they had come to dying too.

As Hermione watched events from the sidelines, she began to understand just how much Britain's wizarding world had changed. Barty Crouch Sr did not survive as Head of the DMLE once it became known his son had been a Marked Death Eater and, as in the previous timeline, he was moved sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Much to Hermione's satisfaction, Crouch was succeeded by Charlus Potter, who immediately began to mentor Amelia Bones with the intention of preparing her to take over from him when he retired. Hermione was not sure when or how Charlus and Dorea Potter had died in the previous timeline²—if it was due to Death Eaters and had now been averted, or if it had been natural causes—but Charlus was a good interim appointee as Head of the DMLE, until such time as Amelia would be ready to take on the role.

The soul pieces having been removed from the Horcruxes, the items were all retrieved.

The Malfoy holdings were inherited by Xenophilius Lovegood, who was a very distant cousin of Lucius. Xenophilius had no interest in the Malfoy properties and happily settled a grand town house in Budapest on Narcissa, where she later remarried. Before leaving the Manor, Narcissa led the Aurors to Lucius' hidden cache of Dark artefacts. The diary was identified and burned.

The goblins allowed entry to the Lestrange vault for the retrieval of Hufflepuff's cup, after it was proven that this item had been stolen. The cup and the other former Horcruxes—the locket, ring and diadem—all underwent cleansing rituals, and with the agreement of the Smith family, the Founders' items were gifted to Hogwarts in perpetuity.

Hermione refused to allow Dumbledore to go anywhere near the ring—"Just because it's no longer a Horcrux, that doesn't mean it's not still cursed and I'm sure Ariana would prefer that you live, Headmaster. Mourn her, but don't obsess," she said firmly—and as there were no direct heirs entitled to claim it, the ring was deemed to belong jointly to the Pevensies and the Potters, as descendants of its creator's brothers. After ensuring that all curses on it had been removed, Charlus and Hermione agreed that the ring should be placed in a special vault and set up entrance requirements so strict that it was only in the direst need that anyone would be able access the Hallows vault in the future. Not liking to use it, Hermione also placed into the Hallows vault the Elder Wand that she had brought back with her from the future, additionally securing Dumbledore's agreement that the Elder Wand in his possession would join those items on his death, whenever that would be—although he still did not know that the Elder Wand from Hermione's previous timeline was now also present in this time. The only Hallows that would not be placed in the special Hallows Vault were the invisibility cloaks—both the one from this time and the one from Hermione's original timeline, which was in her possession—as they were the sole Hallows that Hermione and Charlus deemed safe, even useful, to use. With the stringent entry requirements, this was one vault that the Ministry would be unable to claim should the Pevensie and Potter lines completely die out in the future.

This done, Hermione threw herself into her Mastery studies. She took up her seat in the Wizengamot but, apart from that, stayed out of politics for now, trusting people like the Bones family, the Longbottoms, the Potters, the Abbotts and the Diggorys to bring about change in their society now that the supporters of the Dark had been decimated. That was not to say that those who sympathised with the Dark had been completely wiped out, but having seen the devastation caused by Voldemort's death, those who remained were more circumspect and lacking in real support. After Peter Pettigrew had been interrogated some months previously, his memories of all that he had seen and done as a Death Eater had been extracted and after a select few had been published, which had done much to damage the Dark cause. Care would of course need to be taken, but there was unlikely to be another Dark uprising for a very long time to come. As Hermione cynically pointed out, with peace the economy would improve, and those who sought wealth and influence would surely see the advantages in that. Why enslave yourself when you can gain power for yourself?

.o.O.o.

With Voldemort and the Horcruxes safely taken care of, it was now time to deal with the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets and the acromantula colony in the Forbidden Forest. No one knew how long the basilisk would remain dormant or if it could get in and out of the Chamber of Secrets by itself, without an heir of Slytherin to assist it. Therefore, with no descendants of Slytherin's bloodline alive to control the basilisk, it was deemed best to kill it. Hermione privately regretted the need to kill the thousand year old beast but understood the necessity.

_'What gives us, whose lives are so fleeting in comparison, the right to decide whether it should live or die?'_ she thought. Of course, they could not take the risk of the basilisk leaving the Chamber once more. With no one to control it, there was every possibility it might kill the entire school population before leaving Hogwarts and wreaking havoc on the general population, both magical and Muggle.

Unfortunately, there was no portrait of Salazar Slytherin available to assist but after much heated debate, Hermione logically pointed out, "We regard Parselmouths as being evil because of their association with Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort, but the magical communities in countries with large concentrations of dangerous and poisonous snakes, might not feel the same way." Word was sent out to India, Australia, Brazil and other countries, and eventually a Parselmouth who was willing to assist was found in India, through connections of the Patils, whose twin daughters had been in Hermione's year in Hogwarts.

Again at Hermione's suggestion since she was the most familiar with the Muggle world, welders' goggles with the densest available filters against ultra-violet and infrared light were sourced. Hermione had run off a series of arithmantic calculations, which indicated that these would provide the best possible defence against the gaze of the basilisk, although it was uncertain if the goggles would provide full protection or merely filter the basilisk's gaze enough to guarantee petrification instead of death. Just in case, the Mandrake Restorative Draught was prepared in advance.

It was the beginning of the summer holidays when Prakash Patil opened the outer and inner doors to the Chamber. He was accompanied by Dumbledore, Alastor Moody and the Prewett twins, all of whom had excellent reflexes and advanced duelling skills. Albus had insisted that only those with proven ability to take care of themselves in dangerous situations would be allowed to enter. Gideon and Fabian were each carrying a cage with a sleeping rooster inside. The Headmaster had invited Hermione, who had been given permission to reside in Hogwarts all year round, to join them but she had politely declined, having no desire to face the basilisk a second time. Prakash had watched the memory of Harry's experiences in the Chamber and knew how to summon the basilisk.

ᴾᴾ_Speak to me, Salazar Slytherin, greatest of the Founders four,_ᴾᴾ Prakash hissed and the mouth of the statue of Salazar Slytherin opened.

After what seemed like an interminable wait, Prakash heard the basilisk speak. ᴾᴾ_Who summons me?_ᴾᴾ it asked sleepily, sounding like it was just coming out of a deep slumber.

Prakash immediately nodded to Dumbledore and Gideon and Fabian removed the sleeping spells from the roosters and prodded them awake. Both roosters immediately loudly crowed in indignation. An inhuman screeching was immediately heard, together with the sound of a large creature thrashing around. When silence had fallen, Prakash spoke again, to try and determine if the basilisk had indeed died at the sound of the roosters.

ᴾᴾ_Oh, mighty basilisk, king of the serpents, we invite you to join us,_ᴾᴾ he hissed, figuring that the snake would respond to the same kind of obsequious flattery as its Master; however, there was no response.

"I believe it has died," Prakash informed the wizards who had accompanied him. "However, without actually entering the inner sanctum, we can't be certain."

"I can't imagine this is the entirety of the Chamber of Secrets," Dumbledore observed, gazing sharply round the room, which did in fact look more like an antechamber. "I would have expected a work area, potions lab, library… anything other than a large and empty space."

Together, Dumbledore and Moody began scanning for any indications that there were more rooms, while Prakash Patil simply hissed, ᴾᴾ_Open,_ᴾᴾ in the direction of the statue, just as he had done to open the entrance in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, figuring that Slytherin would hardly have climbed through the statue's mouth to enter the inner sanctum. Sure enough, a door opened at the base of the statue and the wizards cautiously made their way up the stairs. There they were stunned by the sight of the enormous basilisk, whose head was fortunately trapped in the tunnel leading down to the statue's mouth, where it had died on its way out of the sanctum.

Dumbledore hastily cast some diagnostics. "Dead," he said and everyone breathed in relief. "We don't know if the creature's eyes are open so we should take extreme caution when rendering the serpent into potions ingredients."

"You're not just going to leave it here?" asked Gideon in surprise.

Dumbledore shook his head. "This basilisk is worth a fortune. I propose donating the hide to the DMLE to make protective clothing for the Aurors. Apart from a sum as yet to be determined, which will be given to any remaining relatives of Myrtle, the rest of the basilisk will be sold and the proceeds split between Hogwarts, St Mungo's and a charitable fund, to be administered by the Head of Hogwarts—either myself or my successor at a later date—the Director of St Mungo's and two others; anyone will be able to apply for funding, for whatever purpose, and it will be up to the administrators to decide whether or not to grant the application. A part of the fund will, of course, have to be invested wisely so that the fund can continue. Mr Patil," he continued, turning to the Indian wizard, "we will also offer you a share of the basilisk for your assistance."

"Thank you, Headmaster; that is very honourable of you," the Indian wizard replied with a slight bow. This was unexpected, since he was after all being paid for his services.

"I'd suggest you involve Miss Pevensie in the charitable fund, Albus" suggested Moody. "Her Arithmancy skills are excellent and her knowledge of the Muggle world and upcoming trends is better than that of anyone else in the wizarding world right now; it would be worthwhile investing some of that money in the Muggle world as well."

Albus merely nodded in acknowledgement, not wanting to go into detail in front of Prakash Patil. The knowledge that Maia Pevensie was from the future was being closely guarded—the majority of those who knew were unable to talk about it and those few who could speak of it could only do so only in the presence of the Headmaster or Hermione herself. However, Alastor was right: Hermione's knowledge of the future would be of great assistance when investing the funds.

The five wizards made their way out of the Chamber, with Prakash resetting all the passwords on the way so that Albus would be able to gain access without the services of a Parselmouth.

Once back in Myrtle's bathroom, Gideon and Fabian made their farewells, taking the roosters back to Hagrid on their way out of the castle. Alastor escorted Prakash to the Headmaster's office while Albus paused for a quick word with the ghost who haunted the bathroom.

"I just wanted to let you know that the monster that killed you has itself been killed, Myrtle," said Dumbledore kindly. "You'll never be troubled by it again."

Myrtle dived into her toilet, too overcome to speak, and with a sigh and a sympathetic shake of his head, Albus followed the other wizards to his office, where he proceeded to make arrangements with Prakash regarding exploring the Chamber more thoroughly once the basilisk had been harvested and removed. That done, Albus contemplated the mammoth task of harvesting the basilisk and selling it without flooding the market and causing prices for basilisk ingredients and parts to drop like a stone. He did not think that such a large basilisk had ever been seen before.

A week later, a specially picked team of Magical Creatures experts and Aurors entered the Forbidden Forest to clear out the acromantula colony, much to Hagrid's dismay. Dumbledore had used a memory of Myrtle's death supplied by Lady Hogwarts to prove that Hagrid had not been responsible for releasing Slytherin's monster previously, the fact that Hagrid did not speak Parseltongue being a decisive factor in clearing him. Hagrid was allowed to use magic again and the Hogwarts staff were giving him a refresher course. They hoped to get him to OWL level in the core subjects and then the Care of Magical Creatures Professor would advance Hagrid's studies in that subject at least to NEWT level, as everyone felt the more Hagrid knew about the _safe_ handling of magical creatures the better.

"Hagrid," said Hermione gently, when Albus told the large man that the acromantula were going to be eradicated from the Forbidden Forest. "You're a half giant. That makes you invulnerable to a lot of the creatures you like. I'm not discriminating against you because of your heritage, Hagrid—I really don't care about that—but I'm not sure you realise that those of us who don't have your mixed heritage are smaller and more fragile than you. I know you feel these creatures are misunderstood but, Hagrid, the average witch and wizard is at far greater risk from them than you are. You wouldn't want something to happen to the young students, would you?" Hermione had insisted on being involved as she was not sure any of the staff had ever actually discussed with Hagrid his fondness for dangerous creatures or understood that he genuinely believed they were harmless, simply because he himself was not at risk and therefore could not comprehend the danger. Hermione, Harry and Ron, however, had come up against this belief of Hagrid's many times and she knew how to approach the subject with him.

"Well, no. But…"

Hagrid looked ready to cry so Hermione moved his mind onto other things. "Hagrid, I've heard that you love dragons, is that true?" As Hagrid's face lit up, she continued. "If you would like it, perhaps Professor Dumbledore can arrange for you to spend your summers helping out at a dragon reserve?"

Hagrid was delighted with that offer and allowed himself to be distracted from his distress over the eradication of the acromantula colony—Hermione suspected that Dumbledore may have sent a few discreet charms in Hagrid's direction to persuade the large man to cooperate without fuss, but she remained silent; the other alternative would have been to obliviate Hagrid of all memory of the acromantula, and that would have been worse than a few mild persuasion charms that would wear off before long. The arrangements were made and the clearing out of the Forbidden Forest took place while Hagrid was safely in Romania, so that he would not need to witness the decimation of Aragog and his family. It was not possible to relocate the giant spiders as there was nowhere that could contain them safely away from humankind.

.o.O.o.

Hermione spent the next few years living more peacefully than she could remember since before she started Hogwarts at the age of eleven. She completed her Charms Mastery and then undertook a second Mastery in Arithmancy. With her double Mastery, Hermione was quickly snapped up by the Department of Mysteries and rapidly rose in the ranks.

Severus Snape took Hermione up on her offer for a loan and allowed her to fund his Mastery in Potions. Despite his misgivings, he chose to pursue this in Hogwarts under the tutelage of Horace Slughorn, mainly to be close to Hermione, for whom Severus had begun to develop feelings. Fortunately for Severus, Hermione returned those feelings and after they completed their first Masteries, the pair married, with Hermione flooing to work from Hogwarts every day. Severus again took up the mantle of Head of Slytherin House and Potions Professor, while at the same time pursing a second Mastery in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Severus and Hermione had two children, Selene and Marcus³, both of whom were too young to be in the same school year as young Hermione, Harry or Ron, much to Hermione's great relief. _'It would be too bizarre for my child to be in the same school year as my younger self,'_ she thought. In fact, Selene was in the same school year as Dennis Creevey and Marcus was a year younger.

With the death of Voldemort, much changed at Hogwarts. Albus took to heart all that Hermione had to say about how the school was run in her time, and he withdrew from his public positions as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards to focus on Hogwarts. The Headmaster involved his Deputy Head and the other Heads of House more in the day-to-day running of the school, making it clear that they should second-guess him and question his actions whenever they felt it necessary; he even began meeting with the prefects twice a term in order to get feedback from the students as to what they felt needed to be improved.

Amos Diggory beat Cornelius Fudge to the position of Minister for Magic and Augusta Longbottom was unanimously voted in as Chief Witch of the Wizengamot, with her son, Frank, taking up the hereditary Longbottom seat in her place once he finished school. Together, Augusta and Amos spearheaded the introduction of much new and fairer legislation. Amos proved to be a very popular Minister and, under his tenure, Dolores Umbridge was soon fired for her prejudiced attitudes and for using blackmail to rise in the Ministry ranks—she managed to avoid charges being pressed as long as she left quietly. With no respectable business being willing to employ the toad-like woman, she was reduced to working in the betting shop in Knockturn Alley. True to form, Umbridge subsequently tried to use her knowledge of people's gambling habits to blackmail some of the betting shop regulars, but came up against some rather powerful and influential members of society, whereupon she soon found herself sentenced to rather a long stay in Azkaban—to the regret of none who knew the despicable woman. When reading in the _Daily Prophet_ about the sentence that had been passed, Hermione doubted that Umbridge would have the strength of mind to survive there for long.

In addition, mysterious accidents stopped happening to the Defence Professors and the Prewett twins jointly took over that position, choosing to leave the Auror Office because, as they put it, "We want to live long enough to get married and have families." Fabian and Gideon also instituted a duelling club, which they ran with the help of Hermione, Severus and Filius Flitwick, who was an accomplished Duelling Master. The students were in awe of the skill they saw from the adults and the club became extremely popular.

Albus now turned his attention solely to Hogwarts. Rules were introduced—and enforced!—regarding bullying and acceptable behaviour. Together, Hermione and Severus codified what constituted bullying and developed an appropriate policy to tackle the issue. This was sent out to the students every year with their book lists, so that they would have no excuse for not being aware of the school's policy with regard to bullying.

While at Hogwarts studying for her Masteries, Hermione also helped to bring about important changes in the curriculum. After intense discussions with Hermione and three of the Heads of House—Filius, Pomona and Minerva—Professor Dumbledore recruited Ted and Andromeda Tonks to the staff of Hogwarts, with Ted teaching Muggle Studies and Andromeda teaching Wizarding Culture and Customs. (Horace Slughorn was not consulted because he truly only cared about those students who were influential and not about the student body as a whole; Albus was just waiting for Severus to complete his Potions Mastery so that Horace would retire.)

Muggles Studies and Wizarding Culture and Customs were both added to the core classes for the first and second years, before the subjects then became electives from third year onwards. This helped the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised students integrate into the wizarding world, and helped the children of magical heritage learn about the Muggle world. Hermione pointed out that she had seen at the Quidditch World Cup when she was fourteen how badly many magicals blended into the Muggle world and that if the wizarding world wished to keep the existence of magic secret, then they would need to learn to blend in better, given that Muggle technology was improving and that there would come a time when there were cameras on every street corner and when instant, global, mass communication would be available to flash those pictures and recordings around the world.

Hermione also sponsored a Chess Cup and encouraged the development of a chess competition in Hogwarts. This did not have the feverish excitement of Quidditch matches but it was popular nonetheless. Hermione, Severus, Andromeda and Ted also introduced several more Muggle board and strategy games and even some Muggle sports. Sports that could be played indoors became particularly popular, given the climate for a large part of the year in the north of Scotland where Hogwarts was located; several unused classrooms were joined together and adapted into sports rooms. Ted also recommended that music and art clubs be added, with teachers coming once or twice a week from outside to run the clubs; he pointed out that Albus could do what many Muggle schools did and charge these as extras, thereby not straining the Hogwarts budget.

The entire staff agreed that Professor Binns had to be replaced. "Binns doesn't teach about anything other than the Goblin and Giant wars and the witch burnings," Severus pointed out. "He doesn't even teach about the founding of Hogwarts or the introduction of the Statute of Secrecy, never mind more recent events, such as Grindelwald or Voldemort."

"Not to mention that it's almost impossible to stay awake in his classes," Hermione added.

Albus sighed and caved in to his united staff. Remus Lupin was recruited to the position, with the assurance from Lady Hogwarts that the castle would make arrangements for Remus during his transformation every full moon. An area of the grounds on the boundary of the Forbidden Forest was walled off so that no werewolf could escape over the walls and wards were added to prevent any human from entering or leaving once they had been activated. This gave Moony somewhere to run about safely outside. Prongs, Padfoot and Minnow (Hermione in her animagus form) usually joined him. With the creation of this special area in the grounds, it was now possible to offer more werewolf children the chance of an education, although with the death of Fenrir Greyback, who had been a Marked Death Eater, the numbers of werewolves being created had dropped dramatically.

The secure area in Hogwarts caught the interest of the werewolf population in general and Xenophilius Lovegood donated Malfoy Manor to the Ministry to create a werewolf sanctuary. As Hermione and her allies on the Wizengamot pointed out to the Ministry, this sanctuary was in everyone's best interests since it safeguarded the general population, in addition to the werewolves themselves. The Manor was razed to the ground and a village was built in its place. This gave the werewolves homes, livelihoods due to the businesses they opened to sustain the village, and secure, warded land to run around in when transformed. This made it possible for the werewolves to have families and the creation of the Wolfsbane potion in the late 1980s was the final step towards acceptance of the lycanthrope community.

Hermione had a quiet word with Arthur Weasley when Xeno donated Malfoy Manor to make the werewolf sanctuary—something that afforded Hermione great amusement as she imagined generations of Malfoys all turning in their graves—and Arthur managed to persuade Xeno to keep the Malfoy house elves. Dobby went to the Quibbler with Xeno everyday and Tissy ran the Lovegood home. _'With a bit of luck, Tissy will be around when Pandora Lovegood has her accident and will be able to save her,'_ thought Hermione in satisfaction, not having imagined that this could be a further result of the Death Eaters dying along with their Master.

.o.O.o.

It was the summer of 1978. Hermione had completed her first year of her Mastery studies and was on holiday until the new academic year would begin. Despite that, she was still living in Hogwarts, as the Pevensie home, which she would otherwise have inherited, had been destroyed when the family was killed and Hermione was not yet ready to buy a home of her own; even though the war was over and Voldemort and his followers were dead, it was taking time for her to get over her previous experiences and she still felt safer behind the wards of Hogwarts.

Hermione was standing in a street in a Muggle neighbourhood, looking apprehensively at the home belonging to Lilias Puckle. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and marched resolutely up to the door. Hermione rang the doorbell and waited. A few moments later, she heard footsteps coming towards the door.

"Hello," Hermione said when the door was answered and her Granny was standing in front of her. "Mrs Lilias Puckle? My name is Maia Pevensie." Lilias took a sharp breath and Hermione continued nervously. "Please may I come in? I'd like to speak to you and it would be best not to have this conversation on the doorstep."

Lilias stepped back and allowed Hermione entry. Hermione followed her beloved grandmother to the well-remembered kitchen and sat at the table while Lilias pottered about making tea. Once they were both sitting, Hermione spoke again.

"Mrs Puckle, what I'm about to tell you will be unbelievable but I promise I'm telling you the truth. I'm your yet-to-be-born granddaughter; I was sent back to this time to prevent the destruction of the wizarding world."

"My, that is quite fantastic," said Lilias placidly as she eyed Hermione shewdly, noting just how much the young woman sitting at her kitchen table looked like a combination of her daughter and son-in-law. However, Lilias was also well aware that a glamour charm could also achieve that effect and wanted reassurance. "I assume you can prove this?"

Hermione nodded. "I'm willing to make a magical oath, if you would like? I know you left the wizarding world a long time ago but I assume you're aware what that means?"

"That you'll lose your magic if you lie, yes," Lilias nodded in turn. "Go ahead then."

Hermione pulled out her wand. "I declare on my magic that I am the granddaughter of Lilias Puckle née Pevensie and that I was sent back to this time from the future." Upon completion of her oath, Hermione muttered a quiet _Lumos_ and her wand lit up.

Lilias nodded decisively. "All right then, granddaughter, why don't you tell me all about yourself?"

Hermione did just that. She told her Granny when she would be born, what her name would be and about her childhood. The young woman did not go into detail about her Hogwarts years but she did explain in general about the two Voldemort wars and the changes she had made in the timeline, and why.

"You didn't know I was magical in the last timeline, " Hermione explained. Lilias raised an eyebrow at that but Hermione refused to elaborate. "I never learned that I had a magical heritage. When Lady Hogwarts brought me back to the past, she summoned you from the Afterlife to tell me about the family. The Pevensies were all murdered—I'm so sorry, Granny!—but I was able to claim the Pevensie name and holdings. If they weren't claimed within a year and a day, they would have gone to the Ministry. That must have happened in the last timeline. Even if I'd known about my heritage back then, I wasn't yet born when the family holdings would have been appropriated. I claimed them now because there was no time to wait; I've made arrangements for when my younger self reaches Hogwarts age, though.

"Once we learned I was a witch, Mum, Dad and I looked back to see if we could remember when I first did accidental magic. Mum and Dad thought I was three—they remembered putting me to bed for a nap and I wanted to carry on reading my book, so I summoned it down from the shelf and into my bed. Once my younger self does her first accidental magic, we'll be able to explain about the wizarding world. Normally, Muggleborns don't receive an explanation until they're old enough to receive their Hogwarts letters but with both Mum and Dad being descended from Squibs, that changes the rules somewhat."

"Who was the magical in your father's line?" asked Lilias curiously.

"My great-great-grandfather was a Dagworth-Granger. He was disowned for being a Squib and dropped the Dagworth from his name when he entered the Muggle world," Hermione explained. "The magical connection is more distant but it's there. It'll save Mum and Dad a lot of heartache if they know as early as possible the reason why my younger self can do the all strange things I know she'll be doing. Hopefully, Mini-Me won't have to face the kind of prejudice I did for being a Muggleborn when she goes to Hogwarts, but it'll definitely be easier for her if she knows she has magical ancestry."

"Are we to tell my future granddaughter that she's your younger self? Or her parents?" asked Lilias.

Hermione shook her head. "Not at first. It's not commonly known that I came back from the future and I'd like to keep it that way. Mini-Me will have to be told eventually so that when she's older and hopefully gets married, she'll know her family can't inter-marry with mine."

"Oh? Do you have a young man?" asked Lilias with interest.

"Not yet but I hope I will do, one day. I've spent the last year or so mourning and, well, wallowing in misery basically, and I need to start living again. Don't worry, Granny. You'll be invited to my wedding when it happens," Hermione replied cheekily.

Lilias smiled at her granddaughter. She had found Hermione's story hard to believe at first, but the combination of a magical oath and some irrefutable proof had convinced her. "And what about your parents? Will they be invited?"

Hermione shrugged. "It depends if I get married before or after they learn about magic. The chances are it'll be a fully wizarding wedding," the younger woman said wistfully.

Hermione stayed talking to Lilias for several hours that day. By the time she left to return to Hogwarts, it had been agreed that Hermione would address Lilias as "Cousin" since Lilias was not yet old enough to have a twenty year old granddaughter. Hermione would also have to call her parents by their names, instead of Mum and Dad, after she met them. This was hard for Hermione because she desperately wanted her parents back, however, she knew that circumstances were no longer the same and that the John and Helen Granger of this time were not her parents but the parents of her younger self, and sadly accepted this as the price of one day having the Grangers back in her life.

When attending her granddaughter's fourth birthday party, Lilias addressed the subject with her daughter and son-in-law, after the other guests had all gone.

"Have you by any chance noticed anything strange happening around Hermione?" Lilias carefully asked and noticed with satisfaction the uneasy look shared by Helen and John. "Good!" she said cheerfully.

Helen and John gaped at Lilias in shock. "Why? Why would you say that? What's good about Hermione doing strange things?" Helen stuttered.

"I need to make a phone call and then I'll explain," said Lilias reassuringly. She walked over to the telephone and dialled the number of a local café where Hermione was waiting. Helen and John listened to the conversation in bemusement.

"Is that The Coffee Shoppe? Oh, good. I'm looking for a Maia Snape. She'll be sitting on her own—probably with her nose buried in a book! May I speak to her please? All right, thank you. Maia? Yes? Yes, now please. Yes. Yes, all right. Yes, see you soon." Hermione and Severus had married two years earlier—with Granny Lilias in attendance—and their first child had been born a few months previously.

"The lady who's coming, Maia Pevensie-Snape, is a distant relation of mine. She's going to help me explain," Lilias said after she had hung up. She and Hermione had realised that the story would be too fantastical to believe without someone who could actually demonstrate magic to provide proof.

A couple of minutes later, they all heard a crack outside the house. "That'll be Maia now," said Lilias happily.

"How did she get here from The Coffee Shoppe so quickly?" asked Helen in surprise.

"And what was that noise?" asked John?

"Don't worry, all will be revealed," said Lilias insouciantly, as she went to get the door.

Hermione walked in, wearing appropriate Muggle clothing for the time period. She had applied a glamour so that while she still looked recognisably like herself, she did not look like an older Hermione Granger. The differences were subtle but sufficient that John and Helen would not look at her and easily see a mixture of themselves in her features. Introductions made, Hermione sat next to Lilias, ready to explain magic to her parents.

"Helen, sweetheart. I haven't exactly been honest with you about my background," Lilias began nervously. "This is going to sound unbelievable, but what would you say if I told you that magic is real? There's a whole magical world that runs parallel to ours. It's hidden, though, so non-magicals aren't aware of it. I was born to a magical family but didn't have magic myself and so it was better for me to leave. When you didn't have magic either, Helen, I didn't see the point in telling you about it. Hermione, though… Hermione's magical and Maia here will be able to guide her in the magical world because she's magical, too."

"You don't seriously expect us to believe this, do you?" scoffed John. "I thought you were really going to help us!"

Hermione withdrew her wand and gave it a flick and a swish. "_Wingardium Levios_a," she intoned and a number of objects began levitating around the room.

Returning them to their place, Hermione then transfigured a cushion into a glass jar and intoned "_Caeruleum Igne!_" With that, Bluebell Flames lit up in the jar. "Don't worry, it's cold fire. It won't hurt anyone, nor is it uncontrolled."

Watching out of the corner of her eye as her father stuck a finger in the jar to feel the flames, Hermione then rolled out her pièce de résistance and transformed into Minnow. As her parents gaped at the jaguarundi sitting on their sofa, Lilias reached over to stroke her. Minnow licked her Granny's cheek, much to Lilias' amusement, and transformed back into her human form, glamours and all.

"Magic is real," Hermione repeated what Lilias had said. "It's not magician sleight of hand and illusions, it's _real_. Think Merlin and Morgana real. Normally, the children of non-magicals who show magical abilities aren't told about magic until their eleventh birthday, and the parents are left to struggle, not knowing what's happening. In some countries, families are approached as soon as children start showing magical ability but Britain's a bit hidebound and parochial and tends to wait as long as possible. That's something I'm trying to change," she added dryly. "In this instance, not only is Cousin Lilias the daughter of magicals, but, John, your great-grandfather was like Cousin Lilias: the non-magical son of magical parents. Unlike Cousin Lilias, however, he was disowned for not being magical. Despite this, the fact that both you and Helen have magical ancestry—and even more to the point, the fact that Cousin Lilias grew up in the magical world—gives us a little bit more leeway in telling you about the magical world now."

The conversation stretched long into the evening as Hermione and Lilias told John and Helen all about the magical world. Hermione also explained that she would be taking her younger self—not that she referred to Young Hermione as such—under her protection. Lilias had not been disowned and so Young Hermione was entitled to the protection of the family name and to an inheritance in the magical world. Lilias and Hermione would also continue to teach the Grangers about the magical world and help Helen and John cope with being the non-magical parents of a magical child.

"I know it sounds positively archaic, but magicals contact each other through owl post. We have specially trained, highly intelligent, magical owls who deliver mail. Obviously, it would be awkward for you to keep a pet owl in a non-magical neighbourhood, so I have these for you instead." Hermione withdrew a package with a pair of mirrors. She had received the help of Remus Lupin in enchanting these. "These are communication mirrors, like walkie-talkies with infinite range and visual as well as audio. Even non-magicals can use them as they're enchanted to respond to a password, not to a magical signature. They're part of a set. My husband and I have the third. All you need to do is say, Granger, Puckle or Snape, and you'll be able to talk through the mirrors to whoever you call. For a three-way conversation, the password is Pevensie Network. Here, try it." Hermione handed one mirror to her parents and the other to her Granny.

Not surprisingly, Lilias, who had grown up in the magical world, was more comfortable with the idea than her daughter and son-in-law and was therefore more willing to try the mirrors. She went into another room and activated her mirror. "Granger," she said and John and Helen's mirror lit up. To their surprise they could see and hear Lilias quite clearly.

After a brief word with each other, Lilias deactivated the mirrors and returned to the living room. "Oh, I wish I'd had one of these when I was younger," she said wistfully. "I would have been able to stay in touch with my family even from the Muggle world."

"What's the Muggle world?" asked Helen curiously.

"Muggle is the wizarding term for non-magicals. Something else I hope to change, as it's quite derogatory. The wizarding world has a bit of a superiority complex." Lilias snorted in amusement as Hermione said that and Hermione continued with a wry smile. "I don't believe non-magicals are in any way inferior to magicals but as long as magicals refer to non-magicals by terms such as Muggles, then the magicals will never respect you. We recently had a civil war in the wizarding world based around that self-same superiority complex. Fortunately, the right side won, but it'll take time to change attitudes. Perhaps by the time your Hermione starts Hogwarts, things will be better."

"Will she be discriminated upon because her parents aren't magical?" asked John sharply.

"It's entirely possible, if attitudes haven't changed sufficiently by then. That's partly why I want to take her under my protection—that and she's entitled to it. At worst, with the acknowledgement that she has known magical ancestors within recent generations, she'll be regarded as a Half-blood, or of mixed heritage, rather a Muggleborn, which will put her in a better position than she would have been in if you hadn't known about Cousin Lilias being the daughter of magicals. My sponsorship will also help, as the Pevensies are an old family and the name carries weight in the wizarding world. I know it's all a bit strange to you, but think of it as the Pevensies being wizarding aristocracy."

Hermione had made a point of using as many non-magical analogies as possible in her explanations and this had helped her parents understand much better than Minerva McGonagall's explanations in the previous timeline. Feeling that her parents were somewhat overwhelmed, Hermione took her leave, feeling that they would be more comfortable addressing any immediate questions to Lilias.

"You can call me on the mirror at any time if you want any help or further explanations. Accidental magic is powered by emotion, so if Hermione should happen to turn someone's hair blue in a temper or anything like that, just call me and either my husband or I will come and fix it straightaway. Any time, day or night," Hermione assured her parents before taking her leave.

.o.O.o.

It took time but with the loss of most of Britain's Dark families and the introduction of compulsory Muggle Studies in Hogwarts, attitudes had indeed changed by the time young Hermione Granger started Hogwarts. When it became clear that young Hermione was not going to fit in at primary school any more than the older Hemione had, Hermione had introduced the Grangers to the Abbott, Bones, Longbottom, Lovegood, Patil, Potter and Weasley families. Together with the Snapes, these families joined forces and created a magical primary school. Muggle relatives of Muggleborn witches and wizards, who had trained as primary school teachers, were recruited to teach English, Maths and other important Muggle subjects, while a couple of the parents joined the staff to teach introductory magical studies. The school was soon regarded as obligatory for pupils wishing to attend Hogwarts and with this, informing Muggleborn students of their magic at a younger age came about automatically.

Older Hermione found it difficult to be around the Weasley children and Harry Potter. Although she was extremely grateful that they were all growing up safe and happy, it was hard for her to watch the children, knowing that they were not _her_ Ron and Harry, or her Fred, George and Ginny—or anyone else, for that matter. Although Hermione had moved on with her life and was no longer mired in the depths of her grief, these children were nevertheless a constant reminder of her losses from her previous timeline. Despite this, Hermione remained on friendly terms with Molly and Arthur; they were simply too important to Hermione for her to lose contact with them, no matter how painful spending time in the Burrow with their family may be.

Hermione and Severus were also close friends of Frank and Alice Longbottoms, Marsali McGonagall and her husband, and Regulus Black and his wife, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Amelia Bones. Based on her past experiences with them, Hermione got on well with Sirius and Remus but did not become particularly close to them in this timeline because of their previously antagonistic relationship with Severus. Similarly, they did were never more than politely cordial with James and Lily, since Severus did not like James and Hermione did not like Lily.

Fortunately, Harry never became the arrogant prat that James had been in his youth but, while young Hermione was friendly enough with Harry and Ron, she did not become nearly as close to them as older Hermione had been to the Harry and Ron of her time. _'There was no troll in this timeline to bring them together,'_ thought Hermione ruefully.

Instead, young Hermione, who had been encouraged by her older self to be more tactful about her intelligence, was best friends with Padma Patil and both girls were sorted into Ravenclaw, where they took Luna Lovegood under their wing the following year.

Hermione had told her younger self that, "Despite the former reputation of Slytherin, there is no good or bad House. _Every_ House has had wizards who went bad and _every_ House has had very good and honourable people in it. The war is over, those who supported the ideals of Tom Riddle are gone and the reputation of Slytherin House has been rebilitated. Don't obsess over what _House_ you think is best, focus on what House is best _for you_."

Young Hermione had listened to her older self's advice and was far happier in Ravenclaw than she would have been in the Gryffindor of the new timeline. It helped that young Hermione had already spent the last several years in the wizarding world, and also had a known magical heritage, and therefore did not feel as much of a need to prove her herself as older Hermione had done. In fact, young Hermione and Padma built a good group of friends around themselves, mainly girls who, in the previous timeline, had either not been born or else had not survived the first war.

Indeed, Slytherin's improved reputation owed itself to the hard work and effort of both Severus and Hermione.

"The idea that there isn't a single witch or wizard who went Dark who didn't come from Slytherin is utter nonsense. When Voldemort was killed and all his followers died with him, people from _every_ House were found to have been marked Death Eaters. There may have been more Slytherin Death Eaters than Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor but, make no mistake: the Death Eaters were not all Slytherins. And if another Dark Lord or Lady should rise, which House they came from won't be of any relevance, rather the important thing will be who will be willing to stand up to them," one would regularly remind the students.

"And don't forget that during the time of the Founders, religion played a far more prominent part in the lives of Muggles than it does now. The average Muggle would never see a King or Queen but they'd see their local priest every day. Religion dominated their lives, but that same religion disapproved of witchcraft, hence the witch burnings. The families of the Muggleborns tended to think that their children were possessed by the devil. It was very dangerous to share the knowledge of magic with Muggles at that time. Salazar Slytherin didn't necessarily have anything against Muggleborns per se, but most likely thought that for the safety of the wizarding world, it would be best to wait until a less superstitious time to invite Muggleborns to Hogwarts," the other always added.

Selene and Marcus were both also Ravenclaws, to no one's surprise given the intelligence of their parents. Selene married the son of Marsali McGonagall and Marcus married a daughter of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Fortunately, Hermione's hope had come true and Tissy the house-elf had indeed been available when Pandora Lovegood had her accident and got her Mistress to St Mungo's immediately. It took time, but Pandora eventually recovered, and this made an enormous difference to young Luna, who did not retreat into her imaginary creatures and therefore fitted in much better with her peers this time round. Harry married Ginny Weasley, Neville married Hannah Abbott, Luna married magizoologist, Rolf Scamander, and Ron married a sweet Hufflepuff from their year, Megan Jones, who was a housewife and cook to rival even Molly.

Young Hermione, surprisingly, married Cedric Diggory. Cedric had dated Cho Chang during his sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts but the relationship did not last. Cho and her best friend, Marietta Edgecombe, were very popular girls who regarded themselves as the queens of Ravenclaw. The girls were bullies just like in the previous timeline and, again, their main victim was Luna Lovegood. Young Hermione, who disliked Cho and her gang immensely, tended to ignore them as much as possible and so, because Luna had kept quiet about being bullied, it was not until her fourth year—Luna's third year—that young Hermione had realised what happening. Ashamed that it had taken her so long to notice, young Hermione went charging off as soon as she found out to face Cho and Marietta. A very loud and very public argument ensued, in the main entrance hall of the castle, just outside the Great Hall.

Cedric had been appalled to learn that not only was Cho a bully, but that she showed no signs of remorse. On the contrary, Cho would not accept that there was anything wrong in what she had been doing—as far as she was concerned, being one of the popular girls gave her the right to do whatever she wanted, especially when her main victim was as eccentric as Luna Lovegood. Cedric had broken up with Cho on the spot and none of the Chinese girl's importuning had made him change his mind. Bullying was not the Hufflepuff way.

Cedric knew that Cho was the leader of a large gang and realised it could not have been easy for Hermione, who had a good group of friends but was not regarded as one of the school's leaders, to stand up to Cho and her gang. Cedric did not pursue a relationship with Hermione at that time, preferring to take a break from dating after his experience with Cho, but young Hermione had come to Cedric's attention at that point and he kept an eye on her thereafter, admiring her for having the integrity to stand up for what was right, despite being someone who normally preferred to remain in the background.

That incident had also brought Young Hermione to the attention of the staff, and she was made prefect the following year and Head Girl in her seventh year. Young Hermione followed in her older self's footsteps and was recruited by the Department of Mysteries almost before she had finished school. Cedric also worked at the Ministry and the first time he saw her in the cafeteria, asked if he could share her table. By the time they had finished lunch, Cedric had invited Hermione on a date and she had happily agreed. The young couple fell deeply in love and it was not long before they were engaged to be married.

Harry followed his father into the Auror Office and Ron, as older Hermione had suggested, was encouraged to develop his chess skills and followed Fred and George's example in opening his own games shop, which became just as successful as the joke shop.

Older Hermione sometimes regretted that young Hermione did not have the same relationship with Harry and Ron that she had had in her own timeline but when she saw how happy her younger self was, the regrets faded almost as soon as they arose. Instead, once a year, on the anniversary of the Final Battle, the older Hermione privately remembered those she had lost in her timeline, and the rest of the time, she happily lived her life to the full.

.o.O.o.

¹ _Fortune's Fool_ by Mercedes Lackey. I couldn't resist including this, as it seemed perfect for the ritual.

² Supposedly James was a late baby born to older parents who died of illness when they were elderly, but I'm blurring that somewhat—given that Harry didn't know anything about his grandparents, other than the fact that they took in Sirius after he left home, there's no reason Hermione would have known how they died.

³ It took me a long time to realise that Hermione and Ron's children are named in part with their parents in mind: Rose begins with R for Ron and Hugo begins with H for Hermione. (I'm slow, I know!) There were a number of reasons why I chose the names I did but I also decided to keep to that theme and so Severus and Hermione's children are Selene, beginning with S for Severus, and Marcus, beginning with M for Maia.


End file.
